RNA spurs melanoma development
Traditionally, RNA was mostly known as the messenger molecule that carries protein-making instructions from a cell's nucleus to the cytoplasm. But scientists now estimate that approximately 97 percent of human RNA doesn't actually code for proteins at all. A flurry of research in the past decade has revealed that some types of non-coding RNAs switch genes on and off and influence protein function. The best studied non-coding RNAs are the microRNAs. Now, researchers led by Dr. Ranjan Perera at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) in Lake Nona and collaborators at the University of Queensland in Australia, have discovered that levels of a relatively understudied group of RNAs long, non-coding RNA (lncRNA) are altered in human melanoma. Their study, published online May 10 by the journal Cancer Research, shows that one lncRNA called SPRY4-IT1 is elevated in melanoma cells, where it promotes cellular survival and invasion.