Therapeutic application of SAMMSON lncRNA inhibition in ocular melanoma and non-melanoma tumors (SAMMSON)

We recently identified the melanoma-specific lnCRNA SAMMSON as a "lineage survival oncogene" in skin melanoma. Targeted inhibition of SAMMSON in skin melanoma cell lines and PDX models induced a strong apoptotic response and showed a synergistic effect in combination with BRAF inhibition. After thorough analysis of RNA sequencing data from 10,000 tumor samples, it was found that uveal melanomas also show consistent expression of SAMMSON. Furthermore, sporadic expression of SAMMSON was also observed in most other tumor types. SAMMSON inhibition in uveal melanoma cell lines and ovarian cancer cell lines induced a strong anti-tumor response indicating a potential therapeutic effect. With this project we wish to further substantiate these findings in uveal melanomas by means of SAMMSON in vitro and in vivo inhibition. Furthermore, we also wish to investigate the therapeutic potential of SAMMSON in non-melanoma tumors characterized by low SAMMSON expression.