Genes for treating multiple myeloma discovered

The team of researchers from the department of Genetics and Pathology, Rudbeck Laboratory, Uppsala University has developed a new model that can detect and stop the progression of the incurable blood cancer.

A professor at the department of Genetics and Pathology and lead author of the present research, Dr Helena Jernberg Wiklund says, “A new strategy for treating multiple myeloma could be to develop drugs that are targeted to the PcG complex, leading to reactivation of the silenced gene profile.”

It may be noted that the number of multiple myeloma patients has multiplied over the years and past studies show that the disease causes the highest number of cancer deaths, throughout the world.

Study Details
For the present research, the investigators took a large number of people suffering from multiple myeloma and identified genes that were silenced in the deadly plasma cells by epigenetic mechanisms.

“This silencing may lead to the uncontrolled growth of the malignant cells,” says lead author of the present study, Dr Helena Jernberg Wiklund.

During the period of the research, the silenced genes were compared with the genes of the normal plasma cells by the researchers.

The Polycomb repressor complex (PcG) apparently reins over the silenced genes in the malignant plasma cells.

Past research holds PcG complex responsible for self-renewal and distribution of normal embryonic stem cells. The new animal model that has been devised by the Uppsala scientists has found that the PcG complex could possibly help in expansion of the tumor-causing cells of multiple myeloma.

Treating the cancer with PcG
The identification of the PcG complex could lead to treatment of the genes that are associated with development and progression of multiple myeloma, according to the researchers.

Researchers from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center had found a drug that could treat this common blood cancer, in a study done previously.

The present research and its findings have been detailed in the July edition of the online journal PLoS One.

Report finds reason for long-term survival in myeloma patients
Findings of another recent study established that multiple myeloma suffering patients who survived for long-terms, were generally younger and had shown a good response to the conventional chemotherapy treatment.

Dr M Kraj of the Institute of Hematology and Transfusion Medicine in Warsaw, Poland initiated the study that aimed to find the clinical and laboratory features in long-term surviving myeloma patients, for finding a cure for others suffering from the disease.