Scientists have reprogrammed leukemia to fight with themselves

A group of scientists from Stanford Medical University has discovered a new method with which you can beat the most aggressive forms of leukemia. First of all, the fact that this technique was discovered by researchers completely by chance is surprising. Scientists have found a way to wrap one of the most dangerous diseases against himself.

Despite the fact that survival in acute lymphoblastic leukemia has increased to 85% over the past decades thanks to stem cell therapy, in the light of the constant mutations of the Philadelphia gene, the overall picture of this disease remains rather disappointing. But Dr. Scott McClellan of the Stanford team believes that they managed to find a rather unusual and effective way to fight the disease.

Research began that day when McClellan, during some of his experiments, noticed that a number of lymphoblast cells had suddenly become mature macrophages. Macrophages are a type of immune cells whose main task is to absorb the decay products of other cells, various pathogens that enter the body, as well as fight against cancer cells. Macrophages, created on the basis of lymphoblasts, begin to fight leukemia with double force, which is especially important in the case of this disease.

Normal lymphoblasts are immature white blood cells, also called lymphocytes. But with leukemia, these cells freeze in their development and thereby reduce the number of red blood cells in human blood. A disease such as acute lymphoblastic leukemia, leads to death in five years in 20% of cases.

Scientists have managed to understand how lymphoblasts can be converted into macrophages with the help of special proteins. By adding these proteins to the medium containing diseased cells, they reprogram some genes in the lymphoblasts, after which they begin to actively fight leukemia. In other words, the disease begins to conquer itself on its own. This is facilitated by the general nature of the origin of cells: thanks to this, macrophages quickly and efficiently find the affected lymphocytes and absorb them.

The method developed at Stanford not only allows us to defeat one of the most severe forms of leukemia, but also helps to quickly activate the entire human immune system, teach it to recognize the smallest mutations of the disease and easily deal with it later. After its discovery, scientists began to develop a drug that will allow patients with leukemia to quickly and effectively defeat their ailment.

The article is based on materials https://hi-news.ru/research-development/uchyonye-pereprogrammirovali-lejkemiyu-dlya-borby-s-samoj-soboj.html.