Rare blood disease mystery unravelled
A US-based research team, which includes an Indian doctor, has found vital clues that unravel the mystery behind the spread of a rare blood disease called myelo-dysplastic syndromes (MDS). The team noticed that abnormal stem cells trigger the development and progression of MDS and thus the disease can be tackled by wiping out such abnormal cells. This discovery could also help in finding therapies against this serious blood disease and related cancers.
MDS has been in the news lately due to ABC-TV’s Robin Roberts’ diagnosis and the recent death of writer/director Nora Ephron, who succumbed to a form of leukemia that may have progressed from MDS. At present, treatment such as chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants are available, but they only help in remission and are not curative.
Myelodysplastic syndrome is common among the elderly and can progress to acute leukemia. “Researchers have suspected that MDS is a ‘stem cell disease’ and now we finally have proof,” said Dr Amit Verma, associate professor of medicine and developmental and molecular biology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. “Equally important, we found that even after standard treatment of MDS, abnormal stem cells persist in the bone marrow. So, although the patient may be in remission, those stem cells do not die and the disease will inevitably return. Based on our findings, it’s clear that we need to wipe out the abnormal stem cells in order to improve cure rates,” Dr Verma said.
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