Why is acute myeloid leukemia resistant to chemotherapy? Researchers from Nice have found some answers to get out of this therapeutic impasse, as reported by the website of Inserm.
Chemotherapy-resistant leukemia
The study was carried out in Nice by the team of Doctor Patrick Auberger. One of the doctors, Guillaume Robert, explains that acute myeloid leukemia often results from a group of bone marrow cancers called myelodisplastic syndromes. Their characteristic? A lack of maturation of blood cells.
When leukemia starts, it is treated with transfusions as well as azacytidine-based chemotherapy, which effectively slows the progression of the disease. Only problem, “sooner or later, cancer cells inevitably develop resistance“to the drug, explains a study doctor.
A solution for more effective chemotherapy
During the study, the researchers figured out what caused cancer cells to become drug resistant. The concentration of a protein called LAMP2 would be an early indicator of resistance to chemotherapy. They also found a way to get around this resistance with drugs that already exist, in the treatment of other diseases. They could be combined with the original azacytidine treatment at the point when the LAMP2 concentration becomes too high. Thus, patients with acute myeloid leukemia would be more receptive to chemotherapy.
Clinical trials are in preparation and should begin in the coming months, the researchers said. They plan to use the properties of a drug against malaria but also in the treatment of lupus and / or rheumatoid arthritis, Plaquenil, whose side effects are relatively minimally invasive.
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