Leukemia is a “group of cancer” that affects the blood and bone marrow and so far has proven to be very difficult to be treated. Often, the problem of Leukemia would relapse or turn resistance towards treatments.
However, a new study has revealed that there is still hope. The said study was conducted in the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences”, whereby it reported that leukemia cells can be made to destroy one another.
The Scripps Research Institute has come up with a “technique” with which the leukemia cells gets transformed into “leukemia-killing immune cells” by “rewriting their biological programming”, reports Robin Andrews. This feat was achieved with the use of “an extremely rare human antibody”.
Iflscience.com explains:
“Antibodies are proteins produced naturally by the human body’s immune system. They act as the “handcuffs” to the white blood cells’ “police,” sticking to foreign invaders like microbes and either directly neutralizing them or tagging them for destruction”.
In a recent attempt the scientists strove to “find antibody therapies” so as to treat the patients with “immune cell deficiencies” wherein the bone marrow fails to generate “enough white blood cells”.
The scientists were on the lookout of discovering “antibodies” capable of activating “receptors on immature bone marrow cells” whereby causing them to turn into “mature cells”. Andrew informs that:
“Over the last few years, they have succeeded in doing this”.
However, the scientists also observed that some of these “growth-induced antibodies” were capable of turning “immature bone marrow cells” into something very different the like of which were found in the nervous system.
The “Acute Myeloid Leukemia” is the genre of leukemia that affects the “myeloid cells in the body”; moreover they also cope with “bacterial infections, parasites” and stops the tissue damage from spreading. The patients of AML generate excessive white blood cells “in their bone marrow” consequently interrupting the subjects “normal production of other blood cell types”.
The scientists introduced a host of “these growth-activating antibodies” into a human blood-sample that was rich in AML cells. According to their observation:
“...the antibodies transformed the AML cells into dendritic cells, key support cells within the immune system”.
Even after the antibodies were stop being exposed to the blood sample, the cells of leukemia that were introduced to the antibodies continued to mature and exhibit similar traits to the extent that they hunted down and killed “threats in the body, including viruses, bacteria and cancer cells”.
Likewise, these cells are referred to as “natural killer” or NK exhibiting:
“...the ability to extend their tendrils into their cancerous brethren, destroying 15% of them in one sample within a single day. Incredibly, these NK cells only seem to engage in fratricide, targeting only their former AML cell type, not other types of cancer cell”.
References:
www.iflscience.com
However, a new study has revealed that there is still hope. The said study was conducted in the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences”, whereby it reported that leukemia cells can be made to destroy one another.
The Scripps Research Institute has come up with a “technique” with which the leukemia cells gets transformed into “leukemia-killing immune cells” by “rewriting their biological programming”, reports Robin Andrews. This feat was achieved with the use of “an extremely rare human antibody”.
Iflscience.com explains:
“Antibodies are proteins produced naturally by the human body’s immune system. They act as the “handcuffs” to the white blood cells’ “police,” sticking to foreign invaders like microbes and either directly neutralizing them or tagging them for destruction”.
In a recent attempt the scientists strove to “find antibody therapies” so as to treat the patients with “immune cell deficiencies” wherein the bone marrow fails to generate “enough white blood cells”.
The scientists were on the lookout of discovering “antibodies” capable of activating “receptors on immature bone marrow cells” whereby causing them to turn into “mature cells”. Andrew informs that:
“Over the last few years, they have succeeded in doing this”.
However, the scientists also observed that some of these “growth-induced antibodies” were capable of turning “immature bone marrow cells” into something very different the like of which were found in the nervous system.
The “Acute Myeloid Leukemia” is the genre of leukemia that affects the “myeloid cells in the body”; moreover they also cope with “bacterial infections, parasites” and stops the tissue damage from spreading. The patients of AML generate excessive white blood cells “in their bone marrow” consequently interrupting the subjects “normal production of other blood cell types”.
The scientists introduced a host of “these growth-activating antibodies” into a human blood-sample that was rich in AML cells. According to their observation:
“...the antibodies transformed the AML cells into dendritic cells, key support cells within the immune system”.
Even after the antibodies were stop being exposed to the blood sample, the cells of leukemia that were introduced to the antibodies continued to mature and exhibit similar traits to the extent that they hunted down and killed “threats in the body, including viruses, bacteria and cancer cells”.
Likewise, these cells are referred to as “natural killer” or NK exhibiting:
“...the ability to extend their tendrils into their cancerous brethren, destroying 15% of them in one sample within a single day. Incredibly, these NK cells only seem to engage in fratricide, targeting only their former AML cell type, not other types of cancer cell”.
References:
www.iflscience.com