Researchers cut the power in leukemia stem cells

Submitted by Ross Bonander Wed 11/16/2011

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According to proof-of-concept research published in the most recent edition of the journal Cancer Cell, researchers from Canada's Princess Margaret Cancer Program have found a new and potentially valuable use for a drug recently approved for purposes other than cancer.

Their work shows that the antibiotic tigecycline, marketed as Tygacil and part of a new class of antibiotics known as glycycyclines, can actually target and destroy the body's leukemia stem cells by shutting down the energy production within the cell, without causing chaos in other stem cells.

One of the researchers, Dr. Aaron Schimmer, described it as causing a power outage in the leukemia stem cells while maintaining power in the rest of the grid.

The group was able to test several hundred different, unconventional drugs against leukemia stem cells to see if they had any anti-cancer effect in just a matter of days thanks to advances in technology.

Source: Medical News Today

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