Afamelanotide - Preclinical Studies Relative To Carcinogenicity

Preclinical Studies Relative To Carcinogenicity

Owing to α-MSH being a superpotent synthetic form of a-MSH concerns were present in the minds of the original researchers as to it possibly having the potential to cause melanocytes to turn malignant or to enhance the proliferation of pre-existing melanomas and possibly other skin cancer types. These concerns led the researchers to conduct a series of preclinical studies to examine the carcinogenic potential that α-MSH had in both in vivo and in vitro skin models. According to the researchers these studies established a, "lack of carcinogenic potential for melanotan". Further studies reported that α-MSH did not enhance anchorage-independent clonogenic cell growth, a hallmark of malignancy, and it had no effect on tumor incidence, size or on metastatic spread in in vitro and animal models. Instead, one study reported that α-MSH actually inhibited melanoma cell proliferation in vitro.