targeted therapy for melanoma could help speed the healing of chronic wounds, acute

targeted therapy for melanoma could help speed the healing of chronic wounds, acute -

One type of targeted therapy that has shown promising results in advanced melanoma treatment could also be used to help speed up how itself repairs the skin against injuries, UCLA researchers have found, providing a potential new way to speed healing of acute and chronic wounds.

in the United States alone, chronic wounds affect more than 6.5 million people and about $ 50 billion is spent each year treating these conditions. Many areas of medicine - from improved recovery time after surgery to reduce the side effects related to skin cancer treatment and other diseases - can benefit accelerate skin healing process

Aiming to answer this urgent unmet. need, UCLA researchers have investigated a new class called BRAF inhibitors for cancer therapy. These drugs work by blocking a mutated gene in melanoma, which quickly shrinks the tumor. However, this can trigger a cellular waterfall in other skin cells in a process called paradoxical MAPK activation, which can lead to a variety of side effects to the skin, said Dr. Antoni Ribas, director of 'tumor immunology UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center Program and lead author of the study.

"We wanted to leverage our understanding of the mechanisms of these drugs and see if we could turn a side effect in a potentially beneficial effect," Ribas said. "These agents have great potential to be used to develop topical treatments to greatly accelerate the healing of wounds."

The three-year study will be published online August 1, 2016 the journal Nature Communications.

Directed by Helena Escuin-Ordinas, first author of the study and researcher in the laboratory Ribas, the first hypothesis research team that by inducing activation of MAPK paradoxical in the cells of the outer layer of the skin (the epidermis, which plays a major role in the first stage of wound healing), they could restore the skin's barrier function. The team conducted experiments to demonstrate that the local application of the BRAF inhibitor drug vemurafenib (Zelboraf brand name) to the skin may accelerate the healing of skin wounds.

The scientists then conducted a series of other tests to confirm that vemurafenib has turned the skin cells, leading to faster wound healing, Escuin-Ordinas said.

"Finding a cure for acute and chronic wounds remains a global challenge," Escuin-Ordinas said. "Topical BRAF inhibitors are promising to promote the restoration of the skin, not only after injury such as abrasions, ulcers or surgery, but the side effects related to skin resulting from treatment for a wide variety of diseases such as cancer and diabetes, where current therapies are not very effective. "

researchers plan to develop preclinical models to further study these mechanisms in order to start clinical trials of potential treatments BRAF news in the near future, Ribas said.