Therapeutics: MicroRNA-579-3p (miR-579-3p)

Patient sample and cell culture studies suggest promoting miR-579-3p expression could help treat melanoma. In patient samples, high tumor levels of miR-579-3p correlated with patient survival and low malignancy, and low levels of miR-579-3p in tumors correlated with the development of resistant to BRAF inhibitors. In human melanoma cell lines, overexpression of miR-579-3p decreased cell cycle progression, viability, growth and migration, and expression of oncogenic BRAF and increased apoptosis compared with a scrambled miRNA. In human Zelboraf vemurafenib-sensitive and -resistant melanoma cell lines treated with Zelboraf plus a MEK inhibitor tool compound, overexpression of miR-579-3p decreased cell growth compared with unmodified miR-579-3p expression. Next steps could include testing miR-579-3p overexpression in animal models of melanoma...