Unraveling the molecular nature of melanin changes in metastatic cancer

Kuk-Youn Ju; Simone Degan; Martin C. Fischer; Kevin C. Zhou; Xiaomeng Jia; Jin Yu; Warren S. Warren

doi:10.1117/1.JBO.24.5.051414

11 April 2019 Unraveling the molecular nature of melanin changes in metastatic cancer

Kuk-Youn Ju, Simone Degan, Martin C. Fischer, Kevin C. Zhou, Xiaomeng Jia, Jin Yu, Warren S. Warren

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Journal of Biomedical Optics, Vol. 24, Issue 5, 051414 (April 2019). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JBO.24.5.051414

Abstract

More people die from melanoma after a stage I diagnosis than after a stage IV diagnosis, because the tools available to clinicians do not readily identify which early-stage cancers will be aggressive. Near-infrared pump-probe microscopy detects fundamental differences in melanin structure between benign human moles and melanoma and also correlates with metastatic potential. However, the biological mechanisms of these changes have been difficult to quantify, as many different mechanisms can contribute to the pump-probe signal. We use model systems (sepia, squid, and synthetic eumelanin), cellular uptake studies, and a range of pump and probe wavelengths to demonstrate that the clinically observed effects come from alterations of the aggregated mode from “thick oligomer stacks” to “thin oligomer stacks” (due to changes in monomer composition) and (predominantly) deaggregation of the assembled melanin structure. This provides the opportunity to use pump-probe microscopy for the detection and study of melanin-associated diseases.

CC BY: © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.

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Kuk-Youn Ju, Simone Degan, Martin C. Fischer, Kevin C. Zhou, Xiaomeng Jia, Jin Yu, and Warren S. Warren "Unraveling the molecular nature of melanin changes in metastatic cancer," Journal of Biomedical Optics 24(5), 051414 (11 April 2019). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JBO.24.5.051414

Received: 6 October 2018; Accepted: 12 March 2019; Published: 11 April 2019

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