NEW THERAPEUTIC TARGET FOR TREATMENT OF ACUTE MYELOID LEUKEMIA

Edited by, JASPER VICTORIA

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the cancer associated with the blood and bone marrow, from where the blood cells originate. It is myelogenous, since it affects the myeloid cells which may become either the red blood cells, white blood cells or the platelets. It is known for its rapid progression.

With the help of a CRISPR (clusters of regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) screening tool, researchers have set a new drug target for the treatment of AML. It is also capable to reduce the side effects associated with the now-available medications.

They have found out that ZMYND8 is an epigenetic (not associated with alterations in DNA) regulatory protein that the cancer cells require for their growth and survival, and not a gene.

Therefore, the scientists suggest that development of inhibitors of ZMYND8, could possibly disrupt the AML pathway. A biomarker for measuring the sensitivity, epigenetic status or expression level of IRF8 gene of the AML cells to ZMYND8 was also brought to light during the screening. The scientists found high expression of IRF8 gene in patients who were treated for AML and also a DNA enhancing the IRF8 gene in them supportive to their results.

As of real time scenario, AML affects 20,000 individuals, inclusive of paediatric as well as adult patients and also reduce their life time drastically to five years or by 27%.

The new researches and studies aid beneficial and life-saving by improving the quality of chemotherapy and developing newer drugs curbing the neoplasmic growth.