(Ivanhoe Newswire) – Researchers have come up with a mouse model of
lymphoma that is helping to explain how the disease develops in people, and even
more importantly, how to improve treaments.
The National Jewish Medical and Research Center team looked specifically at the
role the B-cell receptor may play in the disease. Normally, this receptor binds
to molecules on foreign invaders, causing a proliferation of B cells and the
production of antibodies to mark the invaders for destruction.
In people with the MYC oncogene, a cancer causing gene that puts people at
higher risk for lymphoma, the B-cell receptor actually works with the oncogene
to foster the development of the cancer.
In the mouse model researchers were able to show immunosuppressants. They
prevented the B-cell receptor from sending signals, and actually prevented
tumors from forming or eliminated them once they had formed.
About 90 percent of non-Hodgkins lymphomas are linked to B-cell problems, report
the authors. Finding better treatments for the disease is paramount, because
statistics show it is one of the few cancers that have grown in incidence over
the past 20 years.
“Our findings have pointed to the B-cell receptor and its signaling pathways as
very promising therapeutic targets for B-cell lymphomas,” study author Yosef
Refaeli, Ph.D., was quoted as saying.
SOURCE: PLoS Biology, published online June 24, 2008
