Therapeutics: Survival associated mitochondrial melanoma specific oncogenic non-coding RNA (SAMMSON)

Patient sample, cell culture and mouse studies suggest inhibiting SAMMSON could help treat melanoma. In tumor samples from cancer patients, SAMMSON levels were higher in melanomas than in 23 other tumor types. In six human melanoma cell lines, an antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) targeting SAMMSON decreased cell viability and increased pro-apoptotic caspase activity compared with a control oligonucleotide. In a patient-derived xenograft mouse model of melanoma, an ASO targeting SAMMSON decreased tumor growth. Also in the model, the SAMMSON-targeting ASO plus Tafinlar dabrafenib decreased tumor growth and increased pro-apoptotic caspase activity in tumors compared with a control oligonucleotide plus Tafinlar. Next steps include developing an ASO targeting SAMMSON for clinical testing. ...