Tag Archives: cml

Interaction between two leukemia drugs explained

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a form of blood cancer based on a genetic disorder that leads to the overproduction of white blood cells. Ninety-five percent of affected patients can be treated successfully with the Novartis drug imatinib, also known as Gleevec®. Imatinib is an inhibitor that blocks the ATP-binding site of the tyrosine kinase Abl in affected blood cells, thereby suppressing their overactivity. Consequently, the pathological overproduction of leucocytes is stopped and the blood count normalizes…

Battling defiant leukemia cells

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is an aggressive cancer of the blood that is often treated with a drug called Imatinib (a.k.a. Gleevec). Although Gleevec is highly effective, some cancer cells can develop resistance to the drug. The mechanism that drives this resistance is not completely understood, but there is evidence that cancerous stem-like cells are particularly resistant and help to perpetuate disease. …

Cancer drug prevents build-up of toxic brain protein

They say their study, published online May 10 in Human Molecular Genetics, offers a unique and exciting strategy to treat neurodegenerative diseases that feature abnormal buildup of proteins in Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), frontotemporal dementia, Huntington disease and Lewy body dementia, among others. "This drug, in very low doses, turns on the garbage disposal machinery inside neurons to clear toxic proteins from the cell. By clearing intracellular proteins, the drug prevents their accumulation in pathological inclusions called Lewy bodies and/or tangles, and also prevents amyloid secretion into the extracellular space between neurons, so proteins do not form toxic clumps or plaques in the brain," says the study’s senior investigator, neuroscientist Charbel E-H Moussa, MB, PhD. Moussa heads the laboratory of dementia and Parkinsonism at Georgetown. …