Evaluation of the expression of proteins involved in the biogenesis of extracellular vesicles in human melanomas

• Grant number: 13/18733-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: November 01, 2013
• End date: August 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Biology
• Principal Investigator: Vilma Regina Martins
• Grantee: Juliana Rocha Belmiro Batista
• Host Institution: A C Camargo Cancer Center. Fundação Antonio Prudente (FAP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Skin tumors are the most common types of cancers, and melanomas are the main cause of death among them. The development of cancer involves the ability of the tumor cells to communicate with their microenvironment. This communication may be through extracellular vesicles which can participate in the horizontal transfer of signaling proteins and RNAs (mRNAs and microRNAs) between tumor cells and the cells of the tumor microenvironment, contributing to the invasion process. It is known that primary metastatic tumor secretes vesicles that act on the hematopoietic progenitors in the bone marrow. Under the action of these vesicles, specifics populations of the bone marrow begin to address to the future sites of metastasis formation. Exosomes are the most important types of extracellular vesicles that are released by cells. A number of proteins are involved in the formation and secretion of exosomes, and it may correlates with clinical and pathologic features of the tumors. The aims of this project is to evaluate the expression of proteins involved in extracellular vesicles formation in tissue microarrays, correlating these data with the proliferation and invasion in these tumors and also with the clinicopathological data of the patients. Also, the extracellular vesicles profile from the plasma of patients with melanoma (I to IV) will be evaluated. Then the profile of extracellular vesicles will be compared with the profile of the primary tumor growth and metastasis formation.