New Fight Against Skin Cancer

            Alexander Boiko at the University of California Irvine has discovered a new way to fight against melanomas. Melanoma is the most lethal type of skin cancer and can also metastasize very easily. He did this by blocking CD47, which is a cell surface protein on melanin cells, since this will increase the amount the cells were phagocytosed by macrophages. The term phagocytosed is referred to in the paper as “eaten,” and macrophages are a part of the innate immune system and act as phagocytic cells. Another surface protein, CD271, was also found to be important when used with the CD47. CD271 was used in order to target the most aggressive melanoma cells selectively.

            In order for the CD47 to not be eliminated by the immune system, CD47 was overexpressed by metastatic melanomas. To have better results they decided that both proteins needed to be overexpressed in order to trick the immune system so that it could spread to other parts of the body. They found that by blocking of CD47 and targeting of CD271 metastases was stopped in human melanoma tumors that were put in mice. One thing to take note of is that there was major alteration of the microenvironment surrounding the tumors, which helped with the positive results.

            Before this could be done on humans, further research needs to be done in order to see if the combination of CD47 and CD271 can be safely used. But Boiko is hopeful that with the combination of this new therapy as well as other treatments emerging that positive outcomes in the fight against metastatic melanomas will arise.

http://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(16)30890-7