Role of non-coding RNAs in resistance to targeted therapies in cutaneous melanoma

An abstract of the study of Montico et al about the role of non-coding RNAs in resistance to targeted therapies in cutaneous melanoma is presented. Among other things activating BRAF mutations are effectively targeted by specific inhibitors, such as vemurafenib, which have shown important clinical responses in advanced cutaneous melanoma (CM). However, their clinical effectiveness is impaired by the emergence of an early drug resistance. Non coding RNAs (ncRNAs) are of increasing biologic and therapeutic relevance considering their role in modulating gene expression. RNA sequencing identified about 230 mapped InoRNAs significantly differentially expressed between VR-resistant and -sensitive CM cell lines, thus indicating a difference in the IncRNA expression profiles. Gene ontology analysis revealed that the top of the neighbor coding gene function of differentially expressed lncRNAs involved apoptosis and cellular component movement, including the TGF-β pathway genes. Though additional studies are required, our findings suggest that IncRNAs may be involved in BRAFi resistance by regulating the anti-apoptotic and tumor-progressive aspects of TGF-β signaling in CM.