Scientists claim to have made a major advancement in understanding how the human body fights leukaemia, a finding which may pave the way for better and effective treatment for the disease.
A team in the US has actually identified a protein, CD19-ligand (CD19-L) located on the surface of certain white blood cells that facilitates the recognition and destruction of leukaemia cells by the immune system, ‘British Journal of Haematology’ reported.
The work by the scientists from the Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases and Saban Research Institute of Children’s Hospital, Los Angeles, represents the first report of a bioengineered version of CD19-L, a recombinant human bio-therapeutic agent targeting CD19-positive leukemic stem cells.
B-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) is the most common cancer occurring in children and adolescents. But, despite having received intensive chemotherapy, some patients have recurring disease. For these individuals, the prospect of long-term survival is poor.
“We need new anti-leukaemia therapies capable of killing chemotherapy-resistant leukaemia cells in patients with relapsed ALL. These are the cells that are the most difficult to treat. The challenge is to kill these cells while leaving healthy cells intact,” said team leader Fatih Uckun.
Lymphocytes are a type of white blood cell involved in immune function and are categorised as either B-cells or T-cells.
