India could finally cure blood cancer

A group of scientists has created a study on a mouse model that can cure leukemia. The model helps to study blood and bone marrow disorders that can help heal blood and bone marrow cancer.

The model was created by a research team led by Professor Maneesha S. Inamdar of the Jawaharlal Nehru Center for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) in Bengaluru. Their findings were published in the medical journal Blood.

The research team discovered a stem cell protein called "asrij" (which means blood in Sanskrit) and discovered that it plays a key role in the prevention of myeloproliferative disease, a disease characterized by excessive cell production mature blood, reports YOU.

The article named "Asrij / OCIAD1 Suppresses CSN5-mediated Degradation of P53 and Maintains Quiescence of Hematopoietic Stem Cells in Mice is a research contribution from the team consisting of Saloni Sinha, Tirath Raj Dwivedi, Roja Yengkhom, Venkata Abadep Bheemsetty, Takaya Abe, Hiroshi Kiyonari, K VijayRaghavan and Inamdar .

According to reports, 90% of cancer cases are due to the mutation of a protein regulating cell production, p53. "Only 11% of hematological malignancies (cancer in blood cells) have a mutant p53, the mechanisms that cause the dysfunction of wild-type p53 and promote leukemia are not properly deciphered," reads the newspaper.

"Despite the lack of significant mutation in the p53 protein, we found that asrij levels were low, resulting in the uncontrolled production of new cells," Inamdar told TOI.

According to one of the Saloni researchers, asrij protein protects p53 and helps prevent cancer. Without effect, p53 is destroyed and blood stem cells multiply, making it cancerous.

She said the team's new research explains how some cancer cells grow without p53 mutations. Scientists know that p53 mutations lead to cancer, but they have not figured out how and this study will help them understand it.

The research was conducted in collaboration with RIKEN CBD, Kobe, Japan and the National Center for Biological Sciences, Bengaluru.