Hair Loss Causes Black Skin Cancer – Health – Knowledge

Black skin cancer is one of the most aggressive types of tumors in humans. Despite the advances in therapy, there are still many patients with melanoma who can not be cured or whose illness bursts after a while. In order to develop new therapeutic approaches, the research addresses changes in a benign cell that lead to the development of a malignant tumor.

A research team led by Lukas Sommer, professor at the Institute of Anatomy of the University of Zurich, was able to show in that, apart from genetic causes such as mutations in the genetic material, epigenetic factors are also responsible for the development and spread of melanoma. Epigenetic factors do not directly influence the gene sequence but regulate the efficiency of reading certain genes in cells

Proteins inhibit eyelash formation

Zurich researchers focus on EZH2 protein, widespread in melanoma cells. occurs in benign cells, and is involved in the formation of melanoma. In order to discover how the epigenetic factor contributes to the aggressiveness of melanoma, the scientists examined all genes controlled by EZH2.

"We were very surprised to discover many genes responsible for the formation of eyelashes", Head of Studies Sommer is quoted in a communication from the University of Zurich. Eyelashes are thin-cell processes that transmit signals from the environment to the cell as antennas.

Carcinogenic Pathologies

It is evident that the genes of the EZH2 cocoon are suppressed, so that malignant melanoma cells have much less of these sensory hairs than the benign pigment cells of the skin. Using human melanoma cells and mouse models, researchers have shown that ciliary loss in pigment cells activates carcinogenic signaling pathways, ultimately leading to the development of aggressive metastatic melanoma. The researchers report their findings in the journal Cancer Cell

. The drugs that block EZH2 should therefore be a promising strategy for the treatment of melanoma. However, the fact that cells lose their eyelashes is a hallmark of many cancers. "The epigenetic control of eyelash formation, which we have now discovered in melanoma, may also be relevant for the development of other cancers such as breast and brain tumors," says Sommer. of the University Research Priority "Translational Cancer Research". The team of the Swiss League Against Cancer and the Swiss National Science Foundation has received financial support.