Researchers have discovered that a particular drug combination may have a more significant effect against melanoma, a type of cancer that typically occurs in the skin, than other medications.
New research finds that a novel drug combination may be more effective against some cancers than previous therapies.
According to recent studies, one of the best ways of blocking melanoma is by administering protein kinase inhibitors, which prevent the action of certain specialized enzymes.
The main downside of treating people with this type of cancer with protein kinase inhibitors is that they often acquire resistance to the drugs, making them ineffective.
However, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, believe they may have found a way to boost the effect of protein kinase inhibitors and prevent resistance to them.
The specialists suggest that combining protein kinase inhibitors with ribonuclease drugs could improve melanoma treatment.
Ribonucleases can "unravel" RNA, a molecule that helps to encode and decode genes, as well as regulate gene expression. They also put up a "shield" against viral RNA, which is the genetic material of certain aggressive viruses.
"We discovered that this ribonuclease drug could be paired favorably with other cancer chemotherapeutic agents, and not only that, the pairing made logical sense in terms of the underlying biochemistry," explains Prof. Ronald Raines, senior author of the new study.