Consistently, western blot analysis of phosphorylation level of the essential molecules downstream of Ras and RhoA signalling in cells exposed to ropivacaine demonstrated the decreased phosphorylation of Raf and MEK, MYPT1 and MLC (Fig. 4i), demonstrating that ropivacaine inhibits Ras/Raf/ERK and RhoA/MYPT1/MCL signalling pathways in melanoma cells. This evidence concerns the gene RHOA and melanoma.