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Targeting RAS is one of the greatest challenges in cancer therapy. Oncogenic mutations in NRAS are present in over 25% of melanomas and patients whose tumors harbor NRAS mutations have limited therapeutic options and poor prognosis. Thus far, there are no clinical agents available to effectively target NRAS or any other RAS oncogene. An alternative approach is to identify and target critical tumor vulnerabilities or non-oncogene addictions that are essential for tumor survival. We investigated the consequences of NRAS blockade in NRAS-mutant melanoma and show that decreased expression of the telomerase catalytic subunit, TERT, is a major consequence. TERT silencing or treatment of NRAS-mutant melanoma with the telomerase-dependent telomere uncapping agent, 6-thio-2'-deoxyguanosine (6-thio-dG), led to rapid cell death, along with evidence of both telomeric and non-telomeric DNA damage, increased ROS levels, and upregulation of a mitochondrial antioxidant adaptive response. Combining 6-thio-dG with the mitochondrial inhibitor Gamitrinib attenuated this adaptive response and more effectively suppressed NRAS-mutant melanoma. Our study uncovers a robust dependency of NRAS-mutant melanoma on TERT, and provides proof-of-principle for a new combination strategy to combat this class of tumors, which could be expanded to other tumor types.
Pubmed ID: 29695835
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A commercial antibody supplier and provider of various services.
View all literature mentionsPrivately held company that develops and produces antibodies, ELISA kits, ChIP kits, proteomic kits, and other related reagents used to study cell signaling pathways that impact human health.
View all literature mentionsSoftware application with data analysis tools and spreadsheet templates to track and visualize data. It is used to manage and process data.
View all literature mentionsSoftware for single-cell flow cytometry analysis. Its functions include management, display, manipulation, analysis and publication of the data stream produced by flow and mass cytometers.
View all literature mentionsSoftware for automatic general image analysis. It provides fully automatic analysis of 1-D gels including lane creation, background subtraction, band detection, molecular weight calibration, quantity calibration, and normalization. Editing tools are provided for cropping, rotating, and filtering images.
View all literature mentionsCell line HCT 116 is a Cancer cell line with a species of origin Homo sapiens (Human)
View all literature mentionsCell line HEK293T is a Transformed cell line with a species of origin Homo sapiens (Human)
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