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| Acute myeloid leukemia cells under standard growth conditions (top) and acute myeloid leukemia cells preserving leukemic cell features after chemical treatment (bottom)--Courtesy of the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer at the Université de Montréal |
Researchers have identified two new chemical compounds that preserve leukemic stem cells in culture when they are grown outside the body--a major step toward developing new therapies for leukemia.
The investigators, from the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer at the Université de Montréal and Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital's Quebec Leukemia Cell Bank, published the findings in Nature Methods.
Using leukemic stem cells from patients with acute myeloid leukemia, obtained from the Quebec Leukemia Cell Bank, the researchers tested thousands of chemicals and found two new chemical compounds that can keep functional human leukemic stem cells alive for at least seven days in vitro.
The major obstacle to growing leukemic stem cells and keeping them intact in vitro is that they quickly lost their cancer stem cell character. As a result, scientists have had difficult studying the multiplication of cells that cause leukemia.
The next step for the researchers is to study the molecular mechanisms that regulate the survival and proliferation of leukemic cells as well as resistance to cancer drugs.
- read the press release
- see the study abstract