A research team in Singapore has identified a promising drug target for the treatment of patients with terminal-stage chronic myeloid leukemia (CML).
in their study, published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team identified a protein enzyme, the MNK kinase, that was abnormally activated in clinical samples taken from patients with blast crisis CML.
Experiments conducted in the lab further unraveled details of the biochemical pathway in which the MNK protein functions and showed that activation of this pathway is a critical step in the progression of CML to the blast crisis phase. Furthermore, the researchers found that activation of MNK is responsible for the stem cell-like behavior of leukemia stem cells.
The team tested a panel of drugs that inhibit MNK kinase activity and found that these MNK inhibitors were effective in preventing blast crisis cells from behaving like cancer stem cells in both in vitro laboratory tests and animal studies.
“Our studies identify the MNK kinases as an important therapeutic target in blast crisis CML, and suggest that drug inhibition of MNK kinase will be useful in overcoming TKI resistance, and improving the survival of patients with blast crisis CML,” said Professor Ong.
http://www.asianscientist.com/in-the-lab/new-drug-target-deadly-form-leu...