After six years of research an immune cell which can locate and kill leukaemia cells has been discovered and could lead to the treatment of sufferers of the disease, it was revealed today.
Researchers at London's Hammersmith Hospital and Imperial College School of Medicine have identified a single gene (WT-1) which is over-expressed in cells that cause leukaemia.
Funded by the British Leukaemia Research Fund, scientists found that the WT-1 gene labeled the cells responsible for the disease and so made them easily identifiable.
The discovery, detailed in the publication Hammersmith Research led Dr Hans Stauss to use the same principle in developing immune cells that can recognise a WT-1 label on cancer cells and destroy them.
Results have shown the engineered immune cells will specifically destroy leukaemia cells and ignore normal cells of the same type.
The project is joining forces with the department of haematology at Hammersmith Hospital, led by Professor John Goldman, and clinical trials among leukaemia patients will be performed within the next two years.
Dr Stauss, reader in tumour immunology at Imperial College, said: "The principle we have developed can be applied to almost all forms of leukaemia and could signal a huge step forward in how we treat the disease.
"What makes this work even more exciting is that our findings can also be applied to solid cancers, such as breast or lung cancer, where there is similar over-expression of WT-1.
"The possibilities for new treatments are enormous." he added.
Dr David Grant, the fund's scientific director, said: "This is the first step in a long process. This clinical trial is vital to find out if the technique works as well as we hope it will do.
"This could well be the chink in the armour cancer doctors have been looking for. We look forward to the results of this trial and introducing a whole new range of therapies to patients," he added.
Over 300 Irish people are diagnosed annually with leukaemia.
PA