Melanomas Come Up for Air

Mutant BRAF^V600E is a critical driver of approximately 50% of melanomas, a fact reflected in high response rates to specific inhibitors of BRAF kinase. It is also known that many cancers favor glycolysis, even in the face of abundant oxygen, as a more efficient means of providing cellular building blocks for proliferation. Now, two research groups detail how melanomas regulate this choice of how to meet energy demands and suggest a novel vulnerability.

Haq and colleagues found that BRAF-mutant melanoma cells treated with BRAF inhibitors had increases in mitochondria and levels of oxidative phosphorylation induced by increased expression of the mitochondrial regulator PGC1α, which plays a central role in the regulation of cellular energy meta…