Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Gene changes in cat eye melanomas differ from human tumors
By Rushton, J G et al.·Published in Veterinary and comparative oncology·2017·Department for Companion Animals and Horses·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Mutation analysis and gene expression profiling of ocular melanomas in cats.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
A cat with an eye tumor was studied to understand its genetic makeup and behavior. Researchers found that the mutations seen in human eye melanomas were not present in these feline tumors, but certain genes were expressed differently. Specifically, they noticed an increase in the expression of the KIT gene, which could be a potential target for future treatments. Currently, there are no effective adjunctive therapies for these tumors in cats, but this research may pave the way for new options down the line.
People also search for: cat eye tumor treatment · feline ocular melanoma symptoms · what causes eye tumors in cats
Abstract
Feline ocular melanomas show a high malignant behaviour, but adjunctive therapies are non-existent. The aim of this pilot study was to determine, whether feline ocular melanomas harbour mutations comparable to mutations in human melanomas and to evaluate the gene expression status of genes known to be involved in initiation and progression of human melanomas. Mutation hotspot regions of several genes of feline ocular melanomas were analysed by DNA sequencing and RNA expression levels of the respective genes and others were evaluated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). Common mutations found in human melanomas are not present in feline tumours. Gene expression analysis revealed a significant upregulation of KIT and LTA4H, as well as a downregulation of GNAQ, GNA11, BRAF and RASSF1 in feline ocular melanomas. As KIT seems to harbour a potential as target gene in human uveal melanomas, future studies should further investigate the potential of KIT as target for adjunctive therapy in feline ocular melanomas.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28074614/