A recent study conducted by researchers at Irving Medical Center, Columbia University, US has revealed that targeting neighbouring bone cells may be a better strategy to prevent acute myeloid leukaemia, one of the deadliest and hardest to treat blood cancers. During the treatment, the doctors usually directly target the cells that give rise to the disease.
For the unversed, the bone marrow is the space between the bones that makes red, yellow, and white blood cells. Red blood cells give strength. White blood cells give the power to fight diseases. Bone marrow is present in every long bone of the body. On the other hand, acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is the deadliest type of cancer when it comes to blood cancer. And, is also the most difficult to treat.
Although the stem cells that give rise to leukaemia can be targeted and destroyed with drugs, the disease usually returns with fatal consequences. The study was published in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
Cancer researcher Stavroula Kousteni, PhD, is trying to develop additional drugs that target new stem cells is challenging because, when the use of the drugs is stopped, cancer returns.
This new study by Kousteni suggests that targeting nearby cells in the bone marrow may be a better way to combat this cancer. These cells provide a favourable environment for the formation of leukaemia cells. If these are targeted, this environment can be changed. This is because osteoblasts help leukaemia stem cells to grow.
Stem cells can develop any part of the body. Along with this, they can also mould themselves like other cells of the body.
Kousteni’s team, led by Marta Galán-Díez, PhD, uncovers how leukaemia cells can act to their advantage by causing osteoblasts to release a molecule called Kynurenine.
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