Research Notes — UNMC model could provide answers about leukemia

UNMC researchers have engineered a mouse model that will allow scientists to better study the origin and regulation of cancer stem cells in leukemia.

The research was reported in the Aug. 30 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a leading science journal.

A UNMC Eppley Cancer Center team led by Hamid Band, M.D., Ph.D., professor and associate director of translational research, and Mayumi Naramura, M.D., assistant professor, conducted the study in collaboration with Vimla Band, Ph.D., professor and chairwoman, department of genetics, cell biology and anatomy.

The new mouse model will provide key new insights into a form of leukemia caused by defective Cbl genes, which Dr. Band and other scientists have studied since the 1990s.

Recent clinical studies show that mutations in Cbl genes cause human leukemias, which often are seen in very young children who inherit a defective Cbl gene from apparently healthy parents.

Hamid Band, M.D., Ph.D.

How these gene defects produce leukemia is a key to designing targeted therapies for these patients. The new mouse model opens the door to studies of basic mechanisms of how hematopoietic stem cells are controlled and how defects in Cbl genes or their targets produce human leukemia.

The model also should facilitate discovery of agents to treat cancer patients with defective Cbl genes, Dr. Band said.

Since stem cells serve as the cells of origin for essentially all human cancers, Drs. Band and Naramura said the animal model is likely to shed crucial light on other cancers in addition to leukemia.