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Case Report: Malignant Melanoma Associated With COVID-19: A Coincidence or a Clue?

Following SARS-CoV-2 infection in humans, there is upregulation of proinflammatory molecules S100 calcium binding protein B (S100B), high-mobility group box-1 (HMGB1), osteopontin (OPN), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), and other cytokines that promote hyperinflammation. The same immunoregulator...

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Autores principales: Leis, A. Arturo, Montesi, Anna Peyton, Khan, Sariya Maryam, Montesi, Michael
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9198841/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35721065
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2022.845558
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author Leis, A. Arturo
Montesi, Anna Peyton
Khan, Sariya Maryam
Montesi, Michael
author_facet Leis, A. Arturo
Montesi, Anna Peyton
Khan, Sariya Maryam
Montesi, Michael
author_sort Leis, A. Arturo
collection PubMed
description Following SARS-CoV-2 infection in humans, there is upregulation of proinflammatory molecules S100 calcium binding protein B (S100B), high-mobility group box-1 (HMGB1), osteopontin (OPN), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), and other cytokines that promote hyperinflammation. The same immunoregulatory proteins that fuel the COVID-19 “cytokine storm” are also produced by melanoma cells and various other cancers to promote tumorigenesis. We report three cases of malignant melanoma (MM) associated with severe COVID-19, the first two with amelanotic melanoma and the third with hypopigmented melanoma. It is noteworthy that we did not search for these cases. Patient 1 is a personal acquaintance and cases 2 and 3 were hospitalized and worked at our rehabilitation center, respectively. We hypothesize that SARS-CoV-2 induced inflammatory tumorigenic proteins in the microenvironment that may have contributed to the de novo development (case 1), aggressive growth (case 2), or recurrence (case 3) of these malignant tumors. Moreover, high concentrations of the same proinflammatory proteins found in the “cytokine storm” associated with COVID-19, including TNF-α, interleukin (IL)-1α, IL-1β, IL-6, and ferritin, also induce skin depigmentation or hypopigmentation by interfering with tyrosinase synthesis, the enzyme that catalyzes the rate-limiting step of pigmentation. Hence, the marked elevation of the biological effectors that decrease skin pigmentation may also reduce pigmentation in MMs, resulting in amelanotic or hypopigmented lesions. Although it is certainly possible that the occurrence of melanoma following COVID-19 is coincidental, the ability of SARS-CoV-2 to increase expression of proinflammatory and tumorigenic molecules warrants further investigations to determine if there is an association between these disease processes or implications for patients with melanoma or other cancers who develop COVID-19.
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spelling pubmed-91988412022-06-16 Case Report: Malignant Melanoma Associated With COVID-19: A Coincidence or a Clue? Leis, A. Arturo Montesi, Anna Peyton Khan, Sariya Maryam Montesi, Michael Front Med (Lausanne) Medicine Following SARS-CoV-2 infection in humans, there is upregulation of proinflammatory molecules S100 calcium binding protein B (S100B), high-mobility group box-1 (HMGB1), osteopontin (OPN), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), and other cytokines that promote hyperinflammation. The same immunoregulatory proteins that fuel the COVID-19 “cytokine storm” are also produced by melanoma cells and various other cancers to promote tumorigenesis. We report three cases of malignant melanoma (MM) associated with severe COVID-19, the first two with amelanotic melanoma and the third with hypopigmented melanoma. It is noteworthy that we did not search for these cases. Patient 1 is a personal acquaintance and cases 2 and 3 were hospitalized and worked at our rehabilitation center, respectively. We hypothesize that SARS-CoV-2 induced inflammatory tumorigenic proteins in the microenvironment that may have contributed to the de novo development (case 1), aggressive growth (case 2), or recurrence (case 3) of these malignant tumors. Moreover, high concentrations of the same proinflammatory proteins found in the “cytokine storm” associated with COVID-19, including TNF-α, interleukin (IL)-1α, IL-1β, IL-6, and ferritin, also induce skin depigmentation or hypopigmentation by interfering with tyrosinase synthesis, the enzyme that catalyzes the rate-limiting step of pigmentation. Hence, the marked elevation of the biological effectors that decrease skin pigmentation may also reduce pigmentation in MMs, resulting in amelanotic or hypopigmented lesions. Although it is certainly possible that the occurrence of melanoma following COVID-19 is coincidental, the ability of SARS-CoV-2 to increase expression of proinflammatory and tumorigenic molecules warrants further investigations to determine if there is an association between these disease processes or implications for patients with melanoma or other cancers who develop COVID-19. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-05-26 /pmc/articles/PMC9198841/ /pubmed/35721065 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2022.845558 Text en Copyright © 2022 Leis, Montesi, Khan and Montesi. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Medicine
Leis, A. Arturo
Montesi, Anna Peyton
Khan, Sariya Maryam
Montesi, Michael
Case Report: Malignant Melanoma Associated With COVID-19: A Coincidence or a Clue?
title Case Report: Malignant Melanoma Associated With COVID-19: A Coincidence or a Clue?
title_full Case Report: Malignant Melanoma Associated With COVID-19: A Coincidence or a Clue?
title_fullStr Case Report: Malignant Melanoma Associated With COVID-19: A Coincidence or a Clue?
title_full_unstemmed Case Report: Malignant Melanoma Associated With COVID-19: A Coincidence or a Clue?
title_short Case Report: Malignant Melanoma Associated With COVID-19: A Coincidence or a Clue?
title_sort case report: malignant melanoma associated with covid-19: a coincidence or a clue?
topic Medicine
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9198841/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35721065
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2022.845558
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