Scientists investigated how an inherited genetic variation common among East Asians contributes to drug resistance in cancer cells, driving more aggressive cancer growth. The team trialled a precision therapy for this group by blocking the action of a protein called MCL-1, successfully killing many of the cancer cells in laboratory studies.
Scientists from Duke-NUS Medical School and their collaborators have identified an inherited genetic variation prevalent among East Asians that contributes to drug resistance, driving the aggressive growth of cancer cells in patients with chronic myeloid leukaemia. To address this, the team's pioneering approach involves inhibiting the action of a protein called MCL-1, with laboratory studies showing promising results in effectively killing cancer cells resistant to conventional treatments.
The Duke-NUS scientists, in collaboration with their partners, including Singapore General Hospital and The Jackson Laboratory, developed the first pre-clinical model with a common genetic variation among the population of the East Asian region, which includes Chinese, Japanese and Korean people.
Dr Giselle Nah, a research fellow from Duke-NUS' Cancer and Stem Cell Biology Programme and a first author of the study, said: Joint first author Dr Yu Mengge, a research fellow from Duke-NUS' Cancer and Stem Cell Biology Programme, said: "Based on what we learnt, we tried a new treatment that combined an MCL-1 blocker with imatinib. The results were encouraging, as the combination was much more efficient at killing the resistant leukemia cells than using imatinib alone. This indicates that targeting MCL-1 could help tackle the resistance found in chronic myeloid leukaemia patients with the BIM variation, to reduce the chances of disease progression.
Duke-NUS is a global leader in medical education and a biomedical research powerhouse, combining basic scientific research with translational know-how to bring a better understanding to common diseases and develop new treatment approaches to improve the lives of people in Singapore and beyond.Mengge Yu, Giselle Sek Suan Nah, Vaidehi Krishnan, Fatin Nasha Bte Sulaimi, King Pan Ng, Chuqi Wang, Shruti Bhatt, Charles Chuah, David E. Bergstrom, S. Tiong Ong.
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