Deepa Sampath, Ph.D. University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

NEW DRUGS

Chromatin Modulation as a Therapeutic Strategy for CLL

Update:

This project was aimed at developing histone deacetylase inhibitors for treatment of CLL. Histone deacetylase inhibitors allow tumor suppressor genes that are silenced in CLL cells to be re-expressed. Through our research, we identified that the re-expression of microRNA genes, a newly discovered class of genes, causes certain proteins to be produced which in turn causes the death of CLL cells. In other experiments, re-expression of microRNA caused a decrease in Mcl-1, a protein that normally protects CLL cells from death. These two actions make the histone deacetylase inhibitors promising drugs to target CLL.