RESEARCH ARTICLE
New Perspectives of “omics” Applications in Melanoma Research
Carmen Rodríguez-Cerdeira*, 1, Alberto Molares-Vila2
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2011Volume: 5
First Page: 60
Last Page: 66
Publisher ID: TOBIOCJ-5-60
DOI: 10.2174/1874091X01105010060
Article History:
Received Date: 30/8/2011Revision Received Date: 8/11/2011
Acceptance Date: 20/11/2011
Electronic publication date: 30/12/2011
Collection year: 2011
open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http: //creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
Background:
Oncoproteomics is the study of proteins and their interactions in a cancer cell by proteomic technologies and has the potential to revolutionize clinical practice, including cancer diagnosis. Recent technological advances in the analysis of the human genome have opened the door to improving our primitive understanding of the gene expression patterns in cancer. The examination of the phenotypic and (epi) genetic changes in cutaneous melanoma has identified several genes deemed central to the development and progression of melanoma.
Methods:
A review of the literature was performed to determine the role of epigenetic modifications in human melanoma. The role of array-based high-throughput gene expression analysis in understanding the specific genes involved as well as the pathways and the comparative gene expression patterns of primary and metastatic melanoma. The development and clinical application of selective pharmacologic agents are also discussed.
Results:
We identified several articles that have extensively studied the role of epigenetics in melanoma, further elucidating the complex processes involved in gene regulation and expression. Other studies utilizing gene microarray analysis and other whole genome approaches reveal a wide array of genes and expression patterns in human melanoma. Several genes have been identified as potential prognostic markers of tumor progression and overall clinical outcome.
Conclusions:
High-throughput gene expression analysis has had a major impact in melanoma research. Several gene expression platforms have provided insight into the gene expression patterns in melanoma. Such data will provide foundations for the future development of prognostic markers and improved targeted therapies for patients with melanoma.
