Designer DNA Helps Treat Multiple Myeloma in Mice by Angela Mohan on January 21, 2021 at 12:20 PM
Targeted approach helps to treat myeloma by silencing IRF4, a gene that allows myeloma stem cells and tumor cells to proliferate and survive.
Past studies have shown that high IRF4 levels are associated with lower overall survival rates for patients with the disease, as per the team of researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Ionis Pharmaceuticals.
Many patients with multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer, eventually develop resistance to one treatment after another. That s in part because cancer stem cells drive the disease cells that continually self-renew. If a therapy can t completely destroy these malignant stem cells, the cancer is likely to keep coming back.