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Topical ISC-4 may help prevent melanoma
Nguyen N. Cancer Prev Res. 2011;4:248-258.
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Isoselenocyanate-4 reduced melanoma tumor cell expansion in a skin model by 80% to 90% and decreased tumor development in animals by 80%, according to a study.
Researchers derived isoselenocyanate-4 (ISC-4) from isothiocyanates by increasing the alkyl chain length and replacing sulfur with selenium to target the Akt3 signaling pathway in melanomas. Isothiocyanates are naturally occurring compounds found in cruciferous vegetables with anticancer properties that provide protection against murine tumorigenesis induced by environmental carcinogens such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and nitrosamines.
To test the ability of topical ISC-4 to prevent melanoma, researchers applied a solution to lab-grown human skin containing melanocytic lesions resembling benign for WM35 or aggressive for UACC 903 tumors and female nude mice.
At the end of ISC-4 treatment, most melanocytic lesion cells for both cell lines were barely detectable in the skin model. ISC-4 was shown to be more effective than phenyl butyl isothiocyanate at reducing average area covered with melanocytic lesion, 80% to 90% reduction compared with 50% to 60%.
Researchers said ISC-4 caused no detectable damage to the keratinocytes, fibroblasts or skin morphology, which shows that “a topical formulation would cause negligible effect on normal skin cells.”
Topical treatment ISC-4 was associated with a 77% reduction in UACC 903 tumor size in animal testing. WM35 cells could not be evaluated in mice because these cells do not grow or form detectable lesions in mice, which appeared to inhibit cutaneous melanocytic lesion development without causing systemic toxicity, they said.
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