Westmead Dermatology We are excited to announce the publication of our latest research paper, “Proteomic profiling of cutaneous melanoma explains the aggressiveness of distant organ metastasis,” in the Journal of Experimental Dermatology.
Despite advancements in managing metastatic melanomas, patient survival rates remain low. Therefore, our team set out to better understand the proteome-wide changes associated with melanoma metastasis in hopes of identifying targeted therapies.
Using mass spectrometry-based proteomics and extensive bioinformatics analysis, we investigated molecular changes in 60 formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded samples of primary and lymph nodes (LN) and distant organ metastatic melanomas. We identified a total of 4631 proteins, of which 72 and 453 were significantly changed between the LN and distant organ metastatic melanomas compared to primary lesions.
We found that an increase in proteins such as SLC9A3R1, CD20, and GRB2, and a decrease in CST6, SERPINB5, and ARG1 were associated with regional LN metastasis. On the other hand, increased metastatic activity in distant organ metastatic melanomas was related to higher levels of CEACAM1, MC1R, AKT1, and MMP3-9 and decreased levels of CDKN2A, SDC1, and SDC4 proteins.
Furthermore, our machine learning analysis classified the lesions with up to 92% accuracy based on their metastatic status. These findings provide up-to-date proteome-level information about the progression of melanomas to regional LN and distant organs, leading to the identification of protein signatures with potential for clinical translation.
Our research sheds light on the proteomic changes associated with melanoma metastasis and highlights potential biomarkers for targeted therapies. We hope that our findings will aid in the development of more effective treatments for patients with metastatic melanomas.
Link to the article: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/exd.14814
