Breakthrough in leukaemia treatment_4643

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"Abnormal GM-CSF signalling is pivotal to a variety of serious and difficult-to-treat diseases," Prof Roberts said.
Pharmaceutical company CSL will use their breakthrough to develop new treatments that stop the protein from being activated,You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login, hindering cancer spread.
The researchers hope their work, published in the journal Cell, will lead to targeted therapies,You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login, more specific to the malfunctioning cells seen in diseases such as leukaemia.
Drugs which use antibody molecules to disrupt the regulator's work are in development at CSL.
In leukaemia, an excessive number of malfunctioning white blood cells are produced because some of the signals coming from the receptor are abnormal.
Professor Michael Parker, from the St Vincent's Institute, said his team established the structure of a receptor that controls the actions of a blood-forming regulator called GM-CSF.
New treatments for leukaemia and asthma are in development after Australian scientists discovered a way to stop the production of malfunctioning blood cells.
"With this discovery,You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login, rational design of targeted therapies can now be accelerated greatly."
Researchers at the St Vincent's Institute in Melbourne and Hanson Institute in Adelaide have unravelled the structure of a protein in the blood control system that is key to some blood and inflammatory disorders.
"Because our discovery shows precisely what the receptor looks like and also how it works, we can now begin to design new drugs to rein in the deadly abnormal blood cells," he said.
At present, many leukaemias are treated with chemotherapy that destroys diseased blood cells and bone marrow as well as normal cells.
"This regulator has been of interest to researchers and clinicians for many years now because its controller or receptor, found on the surface of blood cells, is critical in regulating their many functions," Prof Parker said.
Professor Andrew Roberts, from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne,You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login, said the find was a "major step forward".
Breakthrough in leukaemia treatment