Saladi, Srini V; Keenen, Bridget; Marathe, Himan G; Qi, Huiling; Chin, Khew- V; de la Serna, Ivana L
description
Metastatic melanoma is an aggressive malignancy that is resistant to therapy and has a poor prognosis. The progression of primary melanoma to metastatic disease is a multi-step process that requires dynamic regulation of gene expression through currently uncharacterized epigenetic mechanisms. Epigenetic regulation of gene expression often involves changes in chromatin structure that are catalyzed by chromatin remodeling enzymes. Understanding the mechanisms involved in the regulation of gene expression during metastasis is important for developing an effective strategy to treat metastatic melanoma. SWI/SNF enzymes are multisubunit complexes that contain either BRG1 or BRM as the catalytic subunit. We previously demonstrated that heterogeneous SWI/SNF complexes containing either BRG1 or BRM are epigenetic modulators that regulate important aspects of the melanoma phenotype and are required for melanoma tumorigenicity in vitro.
