Recent advances in melanoma research via "omics" platforms

Melanoma has a high mortality rate and metastatic melanoma is highly resistant to conventional therapies. "Omics" fields such as proteomics and microRNA and exosome studies have provided new knowledge to complement the information generated by genomic studies. This work aimed to review the current status of biomarker discovery for melanoma through multi-"omics" platforms. A few sets of novel microRNAs and proteins are described, some of them with important implications in suppressing melanoma at different stages. Upregulation of genes involved in angiogenesis, immunosuppressive factors, modification of stroma, capture of melanoma cells in lymph nodes and factors responsible for tumour cell recruitment have been identified in exosomes, among molecules with other functions. A remarkable series of proteins involved in epithelial-mesenchymal/mesenchymal-epithelial transitions, inflammation, motility, proliferation and progression processes, centrosome amplification, aneuploidy, inhibition of CD8+ effector T-cells, and metastasis in general were identified. Genomic and protein-protein interactions or metabolome levels were not analysed. Proteomics tools such as Orbitrap shotgun mass spectrometry or deep mining proteomic analysis utilizing high-resolution reversed phase nanoseparation in combination with mass spectrometry are also discussed. The application of these tools together with bioinformatics approaches applied to the clinical setting will enable the implementation of personalized medicine in the near future.