Recent research has uncovered new potential treatments for the most severe form of skin cancer.
Melanoma is the fifth most common cancer in the UK, with 16,700 people diagnosed with the condition in the UK each year, according to Cancer Research UK.
The charity research group adds that the number of people diagnosed with melanoma has increased over the last few decades.
Right now, treatment will depend on the stage and depth of a person's melanoma, and can include surgery, immunotherapy, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
However, a new study by Sanford Burnham Prebys in California has revealed that inhibiting a key metabolic enzyme could selectively kill melanoma cells and stop tumour growth, reports Wales Online.
The researchers, whose findings were published in the journal Nature Cell Biology, say their findings could lead to a new class of drugs to selectively treat melanoma.
Study leader Professor Ze’ev Ronai, director of the Cancer Centre at Sanford Burnham Prebys, said: “We found that melanoma is addicted to an enzyme called GCDH.
"If we inhibit the enzyme, it leads to changes in a key protein, called NRF2, which acquires its ability to suppress cancer.
"Now, our goal is to find a drug, or drugs, that limit GCDH activity, potentially new therapeutics for melanoma."
Because tumours grow rapidly and require lots of nutrition, scientists have been investigating ways to starve cancer cells. However, as promising as the approach may be, the results have been less than stellar. Denied one food source, cancers invariably find others.
Prof Ronai explained that GCDH, which stands for Glutaryl-CoA Dehydrogenase, plays a "significant" role in metabolising lysine and tryptophan, amino acids that are essential for human health.
When the team began studying how melanoma cells generate energy from lysine, they found GCDH was "mission-critical."
Study first author Doctor Sachin Verma, a researcher in the Ronai lab, said: “Melanoma cells ‘eat’ lysine and tryptophan to produce energy. However, harnessing energy from this pathway requires cancer cells to quench toxic waste produced during this process.
"It’s a six-step process, and we thought the cells would need all six enzymes. But it turns out only one of these enzymes is crucial, GCDH. Melanoma cells cannot survive without the GCDH portion of the pathway.”
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