"Leukemic" is a word used to describe someone or something that has leukemia, which is a type of cancer that affects the blood and bone marrow. It means having a disease where the body produces too many abnormal white blood cells.
Full definition
Researchers have discovered that specific cancer - causing genes associated with leukemias can transform mature white blood cells into
leukemic cells that have all the properties of stem cells.
Many clinical studies have found that FLT3 ITD mutations are associated with higher concentrations
of leukemic cells in both blood and bone marrow, increased incidence of relapse and decreased overall survival.
They were also enriched for genes expressed
in leukemic stem cells of poor - prognosis AML.
«Interestingly, we also found that vitamin C treatment had an effect
on leukemic stem cells that resembled damage to their DNA,» says first study author Luisa Cimmino, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Pathology at NYU Langone Health.
Blocking both the de novo and salvage pathways was lethal
for leukemic cells.
A new study demonstrates that normal and
leukemic blood stem cells fight for the same niche with consequences for cancer treatment and transplantation.
This is the story of Kaya, my 11 year old mixed breed dog who was diagnosed
with leukemic lymphoma, a cancer of the white blood cells.
The results also suggest that vitamin C might
drive leukemic stem cells without TET2 mutations toward death, says Cimmino, given that it turns up any TET2 activity normally in place.
As part of the new study, researchers deleted CXCL12 production specifically from bone marrow vasculature in
leukemic mice.
Fernando Fierro Becker (Ehninger, TUD)-- «Definition of molecular pathways with importance for the interaction of
leukemic blasts with mesenchymal stem cells» (2008)
And changes to the conditioning regimens that wipe out the host's cells have extended transplants to
leukemic patients older than 55, who previously were excluded because they couldn't handle the toxic effects.
Residual leukemic cells that remain in the bone marrow following treatment are a major cause of disease relapse and can also act as an early indicator to the effectiveness of a given treatment strategy.
When the function of XBP - 1 is genetically deleted in TCL1 mice, significantly slower
leukemic progression is observed.
«The loss of p300 allows these defective cells to grow and
become leukemic,» said Sylvester Director Stephen Nimer, M.D., principal investigator of the study.
The researchers, using blood and bone marrow cells from healthy newborns and adults, as well
as leukemic cell lines, were able to determine the mechanism of DNA damage.
When the meninges, the membranes which cover the brain and the spinal cord, become invaded
by leukemic cells.
We showed that TCL1 oncoprotein associates with XBP - 1 and turns on vital ER proteins to support
leukemic growth.
Why leukemic cells and normal blood cell precursors respond so differently to this treatment requires further investigation.
These newly discovered molecular targets will allow the development of therapeutic strategies that may be explored as possible routes to
eliminate leukemic cells» resistance to chemotherapy.
The two - part approach netted a set of mutations seen only at relapse that enabled the team to sift and
sort leukemic and normal stem cells using tools developed in the Dick lab a few years ago to zero in on specific cell types fated to relapse.
Serendipitously, the antimicrobial peptide shows promise for protecting humans from cancer; it can inhibit the growth of prostate and bladder cancer cells, as well as multi-drug
resistant leukemic cells.
Regarding the occurrence of leukemia (
leukemic transformation), a typical late complication, there were no differences between the two treatment groups in the study.
The findings, published online August 25 in Cell Stem Cell, suggest a new way to
predict leukemic relapse early and to identify potential targets for new drug development.
A drug commonly used to moderate diabetes that induces fat cell production in the bone marrow was used and was found to help foster red blood cell production as well as
suppress leukemic disease.
The marrow contains
mainly leukemic blasts prior to treatment that are subsequently cleared.
The short size of the locus was ideal for 454 sequencing, and because single - molecule reads are generated, the authors were able to identify haplotypes of somatic hypermutations carried by
individual leukemic cells.
These observations, along with the characteristic morphology and immunologic findings in the present case, indicated that the disease was consistent with the features of
leukemic BPDCN.
Notably, we estimated that the tumor content of the «normal» skin sample was 29 % due to
infiltrating leukemic cells.
Ho MM, Hogge DE, Ling V. MDR1 and BCRP1 expression in
leukemic progenitors correlates with chemotherapy response in acute myeloid leukemia.
For more information, check out our recent webinar with Dr. Suzan Imren on her work with Drs. Colleen Delaney and Guy Sauvageau on ex vivo culture and expansion of normal and
leukemic hematopoietic cells.
(joint projects of Drs. Jayne Danska and Cynthia Guidos) How do normal hematopoietic cells become
abnormal leukemic stem cells?
Her team has already identified the molecular signals that
attract leukemic cells to a niche, allow them to gain entry and eventually take over.
Investigate the roles of protein antigen and Toll - like receptor ligands in activating the ER stress response to
promote leukemic progression
Researchers used a variety of techniques to examine hundreds of thousands of methylation sites across the genome in normal and
leukemic lymphocytes, including samples from more than 160 children with ALL.
Neurolymphomatosis (NL) is a rare syndrome of lymphoma and
leukemic infiltration of cranial or peripheral nerves.
To study the effectiveness of sulforaphane, the scientists incubated human -
derived leukemic cell lines and primary lymphoblasts from pediatric patients with the compound.
«In our research project on pediatric leukemia we plan to use Gemcode to define the exact chromosomal breakpoints of large scale chromosomal rearrangements and repetitive sequences that are typical
for leukemic cells, but are difficult to characterize in short sequence reads,» said Professor Ann - Christine Syvänen, who leads the Molecular Medicine group.
The group is therefore now pursuing investigations into how GSK - 3 affects the growth of healthy and
leukemic blood cells.
Currently, we have developed targeting strategies for surface molecules
on leukemic cells (e.g. CD19, CD33, CD133) or prostate cancer (PSCA, PSMA) or a universibly applicable inducible surface target antigen.
In his lab, Wiseman studies whether the oncometabolite 2 - hydroxyglutarate (2HG), which has been shown to
drive leukemic cells to proliferate, can serve as a biomarker to both monitor the disease and its response to treatment.