New medicines are developed for people with Leukemia

Health Net: Team of researchers in England has just discovered a medicine that could treat leukemia or blood cancer.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge, in England, announced the formation of a new drug that can be used to treat one of the most common forms of Leukemia, mixed lineage leukemia (MLL), which is caused by leukemia fusion hereditary factors. This condition often affects infants.

In a paper published in the scientific journal Nature October 2 edition. The team said that the Leukemia medicines shows promise something when conducted trials and tests they plan to expand them further.

More than 10 percent of all adults diagnosed with leukemia caused by MLL. However, more severe in children, where 80 percent of all cases of acute leukemia is believed to be due to the MLL. Standard treatment often fails to cure such patients. It is quoted by Softpedia on Tuesday October 4, 2011.

Even if they managed to do the healing, then the time will not be long because this disease has a bad habit to come back. This happens because the form of blood cancer also has a genetic basis.

The new investigation also involves experts from the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute and the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research. Researchers from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Cellzome AG also contributed to the research, funded by Cancer Research UK.

Together, the investigators determined that the BET family of proteins responsible for leading the fusion protein with a target gene that causes leukemia. BET molecules recognize specific chemical part in the formation of DNA called chromatin.

GSK made chemical compounds developed from I-BET151; this compound has been shown to divert attention from BET protein, thereby preventing them to provide fusion proteins to target them early.

Experts say this method has been used exclusively in mouse models and in human cancer cell cultures in the laboratory. So far, the research approach is proven to work, so the team hopes to soon conduct clinical trials.

Our work shows that depend on the type of leukemia in which MLL protein capable of binding to chromatin through BET, said Professor Tony Kouzarides, deputy director of the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute.

This is an 'epigenetic', the approach used for targeted therapy with chromatin DNA. This approach is exciting new avenues for drug discovery which we hope will be useful for cancer types other than MLL leukemia, he added.

MLL is very difficult to treat leukemia and the only option for patients who are resistant to standard leukemia treatment is bone marrow transplantation. We hope these findings will mean in future to healing by using this procedure to the children, explains Dr Brian Huntly from the University of Cambridge Institute for Medical Research.