News

2008-11-14 New studies on myeloid leukemia treatment in EIT+
in Wroclaw in Poland

A very interesting study has been included in the priorities of the Wroclaw Research Center EIT+ .The team of prof. Eve Marcinkowska will perform in the frame of the "Application of new bionanomaterials in diagnosis and therapy" the project: "Identification of molecular characteristics of the diseases associated with dysfunction of nuclear receptors and its use in the diagnosis”.

In recent years, in the treatment of cancer, the therapies are increasingly useful. They penalize those elements of cancer cells, which distinguish them from normal cells. They can be either mutated intracellular protein, or overexpressed surface markers.

Examples of targeted therapy are those connected with the treatment of patients on chronic myeloid leukemia by mutated inhibitor of Bcr-abl kinase, treatment of patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia by retinoids or treatment non Hodgkin lymphoma, NHL by antibodies recognizing antigen CD20. It is already known, that some cancer cells from patients with acute myleoid leukaemias are susceptible to the induction of differentiation by analogues of vitamin D. So far there is not attempted to clarify molecular characteristics of cells susceptible to differentiate by the analogues of vitamin D and factors which determine the characteristics of resistance. Thereby none of previous conducted clinical trials have given conclusive results.

The tests were selected among the first priorities for the EIT+. "On what basis? Contracts have been signed and commited part of the projects to laboratories at university , what is based on the purchase of research services - said in an interview the President of the EIT+ professor. Miroslaw Miller - the company's employees are students, PhD students supporting the implementation of these projects.

So far, the results are promising. The research team suggest that the susceptibility of cells derived from acute myeloid leukemias to differentiate is very different, and only partly depends on the subtype of acute myeloid leukemia . It seems that narrowness of group of acute myeloid leukemias to those who actually are susceptible to treatment with vitamin D analogues will radically alter the results of clinical trials. In addition, the identification of molecular characteristics that determine susceptibility to treatment of vitamin D analogues will allow the development of diagnostic tests, which in turn give the ability to quickly and precisely the eligibility of patients to targeted therapies.

Another approach to identify the markers leukaemic will depend on the selection of peptides binding to proteins that are present on the surface of cells of acute myeloid or lymphatic leukemias, and are not present on normal leukocytes. Such improperly or overexpressed proteins will be useful both in diagnosis and therapy approaches. Due to diagnostic reasons, peptides recognizing of leukaemic markers will be conjugated with modern fluorescent markers, thus allowing for the use of such tests in flow cytofluorymetry or in confocal microscopy. For the therapeutic purposes peptides will be conjugated with drugs or radioactive isotopes, so that therapy will be limited to the malignant cells changed.

Wroclaw Research Center EIT+ Ltd (WRC EIT+) - was established on November 15th, 2007 with an objective to commercialize research and development efforts, and to built the Knowledge Based Economy in Lower Silesia. The shareholders of the Company include Municipality of Wroclaw, Lower Silesia Region and the following academic institutions: University of Wroclaw, Wroclaw University of Technology, Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, and Wroclaw Medical University. WRC EIT+ develops a new Research and Technology Park, which will help to concentrate the research potential within the areas of IT, nanomaterials, biotechnology and advanced medical technologies.

Izabela Klockowska