Holy, do you know how hard I worked to get that alliteration to work for y’all? I’m still not 100% happy with it; but it’s the best you’re going to get on a Friday.
Anyway, a team of researchers from Johns Hopkins and the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Center in Florida identified RNA molecules in melanoma that seem to play a large role in metastases. These molecules included one named miR-211 target gene DUSP3.
Let’s talk about DUSP3… prior research has shown that this gene, dual specificity phosphatase 3 (or DUSP3 for simplicity’s sake), is implicated in the spread of other cancers, such as breast, cervical, and prostate cancers. But before this, no one reported that this gene was also involved in melanoma progression. In science-talk, it seems that the DUSP3 gene regulates important melanoma signaling pathways. And remember that signaling just means that it’s communication between cells and/or genes. So the DUSP3 gene basically is involved in whether melanoma gets a red light in moving through the body or a green light. (Obviously, it’s way more complicated, but I don’t think any biologists are reading this blog…)
The scientists discovered that an mRNA (microRNA) gene transcript molecule named miR-211 participates in human melanoma cell growth by targeting the expression of the DUSP3 gene (mRNA gene transcripts are the copies of a cell’s DNA that are “mobile”, leaving the cell nucleus to head for the ribosomes where they drop off the blueprints for a cell’s assembly). If you’re at all interesting learning more about the mechanics, the research study notes that DUSP3 “sustains colony formation and invasion in A375 cells via MAPK/PI3K signaling”.
So what, you may be asking… well this research opens new avenues for determining what may cause a person’s melanoma to spread, depending on the makeup of the mRNA molecules present in the body. Finding a driver of melanoma metastases is a step in being able to turn off the machinery that allows melanoma tumor cells to spread and infiltrate distant parts of the body.