Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

Vidcast:  https://www.instagram.com/p/DSBRdaZDbf6/Acute myeloid leukemia kills at least 11,000 Americans each year, and Caroline Kennedy’s daughter, Tatiana Schlossberg is currently fighting this challenging disease.  AML as well as other leukemias and lymphomas is frequently resistant to chemotherapy regimens that include the otherwise effective drug venetoclax.Rutgers University oncologists now report their discovery that explains how leukemia cells develop resistence to venatoclax. The leukemia cells trigger production of the OPA1 protein that initiates mitochondrial shape-shifting and prevents venatoclax-induced programmed metabolic cell death.  Using a mouse model, they showed that blocking OPA1 restores venatoclax’s leukemia killing power while sparring normal white blood cell development and function.The OPA1-blocking compounds are in the early stages of development and refinement. Once they are proven safe and effective enough for use in clinical trials, we may have better therapy for AML and other bl