A study by the Institut de Recerca Biomédica (IRB Barcelona), in Spain, developed a new technique that reveals how stem cells with the same mutations can lead to very different leukemias, which can contribute to improve and customize treatments.
The new Strack technique, whose results were published in the magazine Cell Stem Cell, It allows to follow step by step the evolution of each cell before and after acquiring mutations, IRB Barcelona reported Tuesday.
It is a technique applicable to myeloid leukemias, which are among the most aggressive blood cancers and have low survival rates.
At present, patients with leukemia are made a genetic analysis to know what mutations they have and thus be able to choose the best treatment for them.
However, even among those patients who present the same mutation, the progression of the disease and the response to therapy can be very different.
The new study of IRB Barcelona, led by researcher Alejo Rodríguez-Fraticelli, has just revealed that these differences can be explained because not all blood stem cells respond in the same way when they acquire a mutation.
According to the investigation, the one known as the “previous state” of the cell – before the mutations – influences the way cancer develops after acquiring mutations in the oncogenes.
You may be interested: A study determines that AI will be ‘key’ to mitigate the impacts of climate change
A new technique reveals how the same mutations give rise to very different leukemias
Specifically, scientists identified two cell types, one more “strong” and another “sensitive” to inflammatory stimuli.
“By incorporating mutations, both cell states can lead to leukemia, but with different biological properties, which respond differently to therapy,” Rodríguez-Fraticelli explained.
In order to carry out this research, the team developed a technique called Strack, which uses genetic barcodes to track each cell and record its behavior before and after the mutation.
“This strategy has allowed, for the first time, to link the initial state of each cell with the subsequent cancer characteristics,” said Indranil Singh and Daniel Fernández Pérez, first authors of the study.
In addition, the use of study models in mouse allowed to analyze this process in a complete physiological environment and with controlled genetic characteristics.
The conclusions of this work suggest that, at least in the case of leukemia, it is not enough to identify the genetic mutation to decide the best treatment, since the previous state of the cells is decisive when predicting the type of tumor and its reaction to the drugs.
In this sense, researchers point out that knowing these factors, in addition to mutation, would help develop even more personalized treatments and preventive strategies that focus on avoiding habits that predispose to the development of the most aggressive variants of the disease.
With EFE information.
Follow us on Google News to always keep you informed
