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Wednesday, 22 January 2014 15:34

Body's own antibodies can cause leukemia

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rabbit-anti-elisa-targattAcute lymphoblastic leukemia is the most common form of blood cancer. Patients with leukemia in the body produced abnormal red blood cells. A research group from the UK to establish why some children do not respond to treatment of blood cancer .

The immune system produces millions of different antibodies, but only has a limited amount of DNA that contain "instructions" for this. To generate huge variety of antibodies to protect the body, the DNA is mixed and the excess particles are removed . Particle removal genome likely is the cause resistance to treatment.

Tools used to strengthen the body's resistance to infection, are also one of the reasons for the most common form of childhood leukemia, scientists say. Equipment for the production of millions of antibodies in the immune system can misfire, making the cells more susceptible to becoming cancerous. The findings are published in the journal Nature Genetics. Scientists at the Sanger Institute in Cambridgeshire and the Institute of Cancer Research in London mechanism used DNA shuffling to make antibodies capable of reducing the risk of developing cancer.

In a study conducted on 57 children in E, the scientists compared the DNA of the healthy tissue of each child and the DNA of cancer of white blood cells. These data indicate that there are two phases of the disease. The first change occurred before birth, but the kids did not get ill from leukemia at once, and at the age of four to ten years there were further genetic changes caused by the same principle that immune cells use to produce antibodies. This knowledge leads to the fundamental understanding of the disease, but is unlikely to lead to new therapies.

Experts say that the current therapies debilitating, many patients suffer relapses of cancer. The latest discovery really allow progress in understanding the actual biology, leading to blood cancer and its various forms. The resulting knowledge will develop in the future a more precise treatment, and increase the predictability of the results of the disease. Now nine out of ten sick children have good prospects of long-term survival, said Matt Kaiser, head of research at the children's charity the treatment of leukemia and lymphoma.

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