New treatment for leukaemia nullifies cancer cells
pharmafile | October 13, 2016 | News story | Business Services, Manufacturing and Production, Medical Communications, Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | Boston, Cancer, Germany, Harvard, Mainz University, leukaemia
New research was able to demonstrate that a targeted drug-based inactivation of two chromatin regulators would interrupt the self-renewal of cancer cells, effectively causing leukaemia cells to return to normal blood cells. The research was conducted by Mainz University, led by Dr Michael Kühn, and in collaboration with the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and Harvard University in Boston. The approach uses epigenetics, the science of how genes are ‘turned on and off’, to counter the self-renewing of cancer cells.
The treatment could potentially aid in the treatment of those suffering from acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), referring to a group of disorders that are also known as blood cancer. AML, if left untreated, often causes the death of the affected patient. The current treatment is a combination of chemotherapeutic agents, however, these are only effective in around half of patients. The aim of the research was then to provide a form of treatment that was more efficient and less toxic.
The researchers used two specific chemical agents to block the function of proteins related to the development of leukaemia. In Mainz University press release on the efficacy, they announced that: “Following combined exposure to the two substances, the leukaemia cells underwent substantial changes and, to the surprise of the researchers, started to turn back into normal blood cells.”
Ben Hargreaves
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