HOPE FOR LEUKAEMIA

Acute myeloid leukaemia is a rare blood cancer that is highly resistant to treatment. In 1990, acute myeloid leukemia

(AML) accounted for 18% of the total leukemia cases worldwide. This proportion increased to 23.1% in 2017. Now, researchers from the University of South Australia and SA Pathology’s Centre for Cancer Biology have discovered a way to suppress a specific protein that promotes drug resistance to treatment medication. Professor Stuart Pitson, one of the lead authors of the study, says the finding could revolutionise the treatment of AML, a disease that has claimed the lives of many people including US filmmaker Nora Ephron. AML is a cancer of the blood and bone marrow characterised by an overproduction of cancerous white blood cells called leukaemic blasts. Professor Pitson says these cells crowd out normal white blood cells, which then can’t do their usual infectionfighting work, thereby increasing the risk of infections, low oxygen levels and bleeding. Many AML patients initially respond to Venetoclax, but over time AML cells become resistant to it. Using a large biobank of patient-donated AML biopsies and world-leading advanced pre-clinical models, the CCB researchers demonstrated that by modulating lipid metabolism in the body, a protein called Mcl-1 is inhibited in AML cells – the protein that facilitates drug resistance.

“This process makes AML cells exquisitely sensitive to Venetoclax, while leaving the normal white blood cells unaffected,” says researcher and co-lead author, Associate Professor Jason Powell.