The low efficiency of currently-used anti-cancer therapies poses a serious challenge, especially in the case of malignant melanoma, a cancer characterized by elevated invasiveness and relatively high mortality rate.,The role of the tumor microenvironment in the progression of melanoma and its acquisition of resistance to treatment seems to be the main focus of recent studies.,One of the factors that, in normal conditions, aids the organism in its fight against the cancer and, following the malignant transformation, adapts to facilitate the development of the tumor is the immune system.,A variety of cell types, i.e., T and B lymphocytes, macrophages, and dendritic and natural killer cells, as well as neutrophils, support the growth and invasiveness of melanoma cells, utilizing a plethora of mechanisms, including secretion of pro-inflammatory molecules, induction of inhibitory receptors expression, or depletion of essential nutrients.,This review provides a comprehensive summary of the processes regulated by tumor-associated cells that promote the immune escape of melanoma cells.,The described mechanisms offer potential new targets for anti-cancer treatment and should be further studied to improve currently-employed therapies.
The critical long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) involved in the carcinogenesis and progression of malignant melanoma (MM) have not been fully investigated.,In the present study, it was identified that lncRNA activated by transforming growth factor-β (lncRNA-ATB) was upregulated in MM tissues and cells compared with benign nevus cells and human melanocytes, via comparative lncRNA screening from Gene Expression Omnibus datasets and reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis.,Furthermore, lncRNA-ATB promoted the cell proliferation, cell migration, and cell invasion of MM cells in vitro, and tumor growth in vivo.,It was additionally identified that lncRNA-ATB attenuated cell cycle arrest and inhibited cellular apoptosis in MM cells.,Finally, it was demonstrated that lncRNA-ATB functions as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) to enhance Yes associated protein 1 expression by competitively sponging microRNA miR-590-5p in MM cells.,In conclusion, the present study revealed the expression and roles of lncRNA-ATB in MM, and indicated that lncRNA-ATB functions as a ceRNA to promote MM proliferation and invasion by sponging miR-590-5p.