Till date, most of the cancer drugs used to treat leukemia target only individual leukemic cell proteins. However, leukemic cells produce many proteins that protect these cells from chemotherapy and prevent the arrest of disease. Now, a new drug developed by Ben-Neriah and his team, attacks several leukemic proteins at once, making it difficult for the cells to evade the therapy. This drug has shown a cure rate of 50% for lab mice with acute leukemia.
It functions like a cluster bomb by depriving leukemia cells of survival and proliferation- maintaining oncogenes and induce apoptosis. Leukemia progenitors too, are selectively eliminated, thus preserving hematopoiesis. Source: Small Molecules Co-targeting CKIα and the Transcriptional Kinases CDK7/9 Control AML in Preclinical Models; Minzel.W, et.al.; 10.1016/j.cell.2018.07.045. What do you think of this new drug?
