7/02/2009 PERMALINK
Curing cancer by blocking the stem cells that allow it to spread AML is a cancer of the white blood cells that does not respond well to conventional chemotherapy. "Previous research has suggested that leukemia stem cells (LSCs) may lie at the heart of post-treatment relapse and chemoresistance," said study author Associate Professor Richard Lock from the University of New South Wales. LSCs initiate AML and are critical for its growth. The molecule CD123 is expressed at very high levels on LSCs but not on normal blood cells. CD123 is part of the interleukin-3 receptor, a protein that interacts with a growth factor (called a cytokine) that influences cell survival and proliferation. Researchers have created a molecule that can recognized and bind to CD123. After promising results in mouse studies, the CD123-targeting antibody is now in clinical trials with no signs of treatment-related toxicity.