The article that I will be discussing appeared in the science new outlet The Scientist (LINK). Acute myeloid leukemia (AML), for quite sometime, was believed to arrive from leukemia stem cells. The article entitled Moving Target reported that the researchers found that leukemia stem cells were depleted. The word depleted makes it sound as though they are completely gone. Are they actually completely gone or are they below the level of quantification? This should be clarified in the Moving Target. The Moving Target article then states that the researchers elucidated the kinetic profile of the cells in time during the process of chemotherapy. The article states that there is a small population of cells which are referred to as leukemic regenerating cells are a product due to chemotherapy and that these cells then decrease over time. The article states that these leukemic regenerative cells have a distinctive feature which is that these cells produce G-protein-coupled receptors. They report that the researchers state that if you can suppress these G-protein-coupled receptors then you can prevent relapse in chemotherapy-treated mice. It sounds as though, if you receive chemo then you get these leukemic regenerative cells that cause the relapse. It sounds as though you shouldn’t undergo chemo which doesn’t make sense. The Moving Target article should have been more clear in this regard. Another aspect that was not clear is that if these leukemic regenerative cells decrease over time then why is it an issue. This needs to be clearer.
There was no discussion of how the G-protein-coupled receptors could potentially be inhibited. It would have been nice to hear if there are small or large molecules that are already approved for some application by the FDA or if new treatments will be necessary. Will the possible treatment likely be gene therapy? There are only a handful of regulatory body-approved gene therapies world wide.
Sincerely,
Pharmacoengineering.com