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T-Cells Could Get Anti-Leukemia Assistance

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SUNCOAST NEWS STAFF REPORT

Published: February 18, 2009

TAMPA - Research conducted at the laboratory of Dr. William R. Drobyski of the Medical College of Wisconsin Cancer Center in Milwaukee suggests it may be possible to use transplanted immune system components known as T-cells to fight leukemia without damaging the organs of the cancer patient receiving the cells.

Scientists call such damage a graft-versus-host response.

The results of the experiments using lab mice to probe the role of the immune system protein interleukin 23, or IL-23, were presented at the BMT Tandem Meetings in Tampa, organized by the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation.

"Our results suggest that targeting of interleukin 23, an immune substance secreted by donor marrow cells, may be a viable way to limit graft-versus-host-disease without limiting graft-versus-leukemia activity," says the study's lead researcher, Rupali Das. Das is a postdoctoral fellow in pediatric hematology and oncology.

The researchers found that T-cells from donor mice with marrow cells incapable of producing IL-23, provided protection from graft-versus-host damage to the recipient's colon, but not to other organs.

They then conducted studies in which mice with leukemia received T-cells from the marrow and spleen of mice who couldn't make IL-23. The recipient mice not only had longer survival times than those receiving T-cells from IL-23-producing mice, but also showed no evidence of leukemia following the treatment.

The mice who got transplants of T-cells capable of producing IL-23 all died of graft-versus-host disease.

The study was funded by the Midwest Athletes Against Childhood Cancer Fund.

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