Cell stem cell: find the fatal weakness of leukemia! Effective and non-toxic new therapy is on the way!

April 30, 2019 / bioin / - a new discovery on fatal blood cancer can help develop new drugs with much less side effects than existing chemotherapy This finding may lead to a new treatment that can effectively eliminate blood cancer cells in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) without damaging healthy blood cells Researchers have found that a protein in the body plays a key role in leukemia Photo source: cell stem cell leukemia is a kind of malignant leucocyte cancer with very low survival rate Studies have shown that a protein called ythdf2 is necessary to trigger and maintain disease, but it is not needed to maintain the function of healthy cells This shows that ythdf2 is a promising drug target for the treatment of leukemia A team led by the University of Edinburgh and Queen Mary College London conducted a series of experiments to study the role of ythdf2 in blood cancer Tests on blood samples donated by leukaemia patients showed that the protein was abundant in cancer cells, and mouse experiments found that the protein was essential for the initiation and maintenance of disease Further testing allows scientists to identify biological pathways that interfere with the function of ythdf2, by which blood cancer cells can be selectively killed Importantly, they also found that the protein does not support the function of healthy blood stem cells, which are responsible for the production of all normal blood cells In fact, blood stem cells are more active without ythdf2 This collaboration with University of Manchester, Harvard Medical School and turer university is published in the Cell Stem Cell The study was supported by Cancer Research UK and Wellcome Kamil kranc of Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary College, London, who led the study, said: "our research laid the foundation for targeted treatment of cancer stem cells in leukemia and improved the regeneration ability of normal blood stem cells We hope that this will bring new hope to cancer treatment " Professor D ó nal o'carroll of the University of Edinburgh's School of Biological Sciences was also one of the researchers "This study shows that a new drug could be the basis for cancer and regenerative medicine," he said Reference: Jasmin Paris et al Targeting the RNA m6A reader ythdf2 selectively compiles cancer stem cells in actual myeloid leukemia Cell stem cell Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stem.2019.03.021