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Introduction to Cancer
Published in David E. Thurston, Ilona Pysz, Chemistry and Pharmacology of Anticancer Drugs, 2021
The leukemias (a group of more than 100 diseases) are types of cancers affecting the blood cells or hemopoietic tissue. Strictly speaking, the term leukemia should only be used to refer to a cancer of the white blood cells (the leukocytes) but in practice tends to be applied to malignancies of any cellular element relating to the blood or bone marrow, including erythroid, lymphoid, or myeloid cells. Thus, in bone marrow cell cancer affecting the leukocytes, involvement of the myeloid cells is known as myeloma, and in multiple myeloma (the most common bone marrow cancer), a clone of plasma cells is involved. Similarly, red cell leukemia originating in the reticuloendothelial system is known as erythroleukemia, and cancer of the erythroid stem cells is known as primary polycythemia. In addition, all of these different cancer types may be described as chronic or acute. Lymphosarcoma is a cancer of the lymphoid cells, whereas Hodgkin’s disease is an example of a lymph adenoma that, although mainly affecting reticulum cells, can extend to eosinophils, fibroblasts, and lymphocytes.
Biocatalytic Nanoreactors for Medical Purposes
Published in Peter Grunwald, Pharmaceutical Biocatalysis, 2019
Oscar González-Davis, Chauhan Kanchan, Rafael Vazquez-Duhalt
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia, also known as acute lymphocytic leukemia, is a type of blood and bone marrow cancer and is the most common type of cancer in children. This disease progresses rapidly and creates immature blood cells that are auxotrophic for asparagine. Thus, l-asparaginase is an essential therapeutic enzyme widely used for the treatment of this specific cancer (Galluzzi et al., 2013; Ghoshoon et al., 2015). The treatment goal is to reduce the concentration of asparagine in blood by the transformation of this amino acid to aspartic acid and therefore induce selective growth inhibition of sensitive tumor cells. The FDA first approved an enzymatic preparation of asparaginase from Escherichia coli in 1978, and 15 years later PEGylated asparaginase was approved to avoid undesirable immune responses. The main problem with asparaginase from E. coli is that it exhibits a high glutaminase activity, which could render the treatment toxic. Site-directed mutagenesis has been performed in order to reduce the glutaminase activity while maintaining high asparaginase activity (Ramya et al., 2011). Also, in several cases, asparaginase from E. coli has had a reduced lifetime due to inactivation. Thus, immunologically distinct asparaginase from Erwinia chrysanthemi is being tested (Pieters et al., 2011).
Haemoglobinopathies
Published in Philip Woodrow, Nursing Acutely Ill Adults, 2015
Leucocytes are white blood cells; leukaemia is a group of diseases affecting white cells. Leukaemia is caused by bone marrow cancer, typically resulting is excessive production of immature (blast) cells (Craig et al., 2010). Overproduction of blast cells can cause accumulation in bone marrow, leading to bone marrow failure, and/or accumulation elsewhere, leading to pain and organ failure. Leukaemia may be primary, or acquired, typically through chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Leukaemia may be acute (more common in children) or chronic (more common in older people). This chapter focuses on acute leukaemia in adults. The two main acute leukaemia are acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), which primarily affects adults;acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), which primarily affects children (Craig et al., 2010);
Organoboronic acids/esters as effective drug and prodrug candidates in cancer treatments: challenge and hope
Published in Journal of Enzyme Inhibition and Medicinal Chemistry, 2023
Mothana K. Al-Omari, Mai Elaarag, Raed M. Al-Zoubi, Ahmad R. Al-Qudimat, Ayman A. Zarour, Enas A. Al-Hurani, Zainab E. Fares, Leena M. Alkharraz, Mohanad Shkoor, Abdulilah D. Bani-Yaseen, Omar M. Aboumarzouk, Aksam Yassin, Abdulla A. Al-Ansari
Multiple Myeloma (MM, cancer of plasma cells) is a type of bone marrow cancer that may affect different areas of the body like the ribs, skull, pelvis and spine94. MM is a malignant hematological B cell type of cancer that is characterised by the proliferation of abnormal antibodies called monoclonal cells and their infiltration of the bone marrow. They are made with no control and do not respond to or fight off infections in the body95. They are mostly secreting non-functional clonal immunoglobulins in heavy chains and, in some cases clonally by light chains. There is a rare non-secretarial MM variant96. It is the 3rd most common type of hematological cancer after non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and leukaemia. According to the study by Knauf et al., in Germany, 6000 patients are diagnosed each year and there is a five-year survival rate of 40%96. Treatment initiation starts by considering if patients have hypercalcemia, renal insufficiency, anaemia, or bone disease, this is called the CRAB criteria. Patients without any CRAB symptoms are kept under active surveillance97,98.
Repression of oxidative phosphorylation sensitizes leukemia cell lines to cytarabine
Published in Hematology, 2018
AML is a type of bone marrow cancer. Response to current AML therapeutics varies between younger and elderly patients, in addition to their genetic background [21]. The full remission rate is still low and there is a need to develop a better drug to cure AML, especially for those resistant to conventional therapeutics [2,4]. CAPE is an active component of propolis. CAPE’s biological properties have been studied in various cancer cell lines to prove CAPE as an anti-cancer drug [13,22]. The anti-proliferative effect of the CAPE has been shown in the HL-60 leukemia cell line [19]. CAPE arrested cell growth with concentrations of 1, 1.5, and 5 μM. CAPE also has been shown to induce apoptosis by altering the redox state in the HL-60 cell line, suggesting CAPE’s anti-oxidant property [14]. In our study we found that 5 μM CAPE concentrations killed almost 50% of the cells at the end of 72 hours. On the contrary, compared to these lower drug doses, CAPE has been shown to kill colon cancer [23], breast cancer [12,13], and medulloblastoma cells [24] at higher concentrations.
High mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) acts as an “alarmin” to promote acute myeloid leukaemia progression
Published in OncoImmunology, 2018
Inna M. Yasinska, Isabel Gonçalves Silva, Svetlana S. Sakhnevych, Laura Ruegg, Rohanah Hussain, Giuliano Siligardi, Walter Fiedler, Jasmin Wellbrock, Marco Bardelli, Luca Varani, Ulrike Raap, Steffen Berger, Bernhard F. Gibbs, Elizaveta Fasler-Kan, Vadim V. Sumbayev
High mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) is a non-histone protein localised in the nucleus, where it binds DNA in order to promote nuclear transcription processes.1 In addition, HMGB1 was recently found to function as a damage-associated molecular pattern (DAMP) when released passively from either dead, dying/injured cells or secreted by immune/cancer cells in response to endogenous and/or exogenous stimuli, such as hypoxia, endotoxin etc..2-4 This process is followed by participation of HMGB1 in triggering signalling events in target cells.1-4 Therefore, it is often called “alarmin” in order to reflect its function as a factor secreted by cells affected by a stressor.1 It has recently been found that HMGB1 levels are significantly elevated during acute myeloid leukaemia (AML, blood/bone marrow cancer).5,6 Moreover, AML cells were shown to express high levels of HMGB1.5,6 Elevated levels of secreted HMGB1 associated with AML progression are likely to be caused by a combination of increased expression of this protein in AML cells and conditions supporting its secretion such as hypoxia and death of the cells in the tumour microenvironment.5-7