TUESDAY, Jan. 17, 2006 (HealthDay News) -- New research into a cancer-promoting "oncoprotein" is providing critical new insight into the mechanisms of leukemia progression and may help in the evaluation of new drugs to treat acute myeloid leukemia (AML), researchers said.
Previously, it was difficult to investigate the oncoprotein -- called CBFB-SMMHC -- in mice because the expression of this gene is associated with the death of developing mice fetuses. For this study, researchers at the U.S. National Institutes of Health and elsewhere created mice in which the expression of CBFB-SMMHC could be selectively turned on in adults.
They found that the oncoprotein induces abnormal preleukemic blood cell progenitors -- stem cell-like cells that can become blood cells.
On average, mice developed AML within about five months of having the CBFB-SMMHC gene turned on, the researchers said.
It was already known that CBFB-SMMHC is present in about 12 percent of AML cases and that this oncoprotein interferes with the process of normal blood cell development.
The findings appear in the January issue of the journal Cancer Cell.
More information
The American Cancer Society has more about AML.
