U.S. and Swiss researchers have designed a new drug to treat chronic myelogenous leukemia that ultimately could be more effective than the current treatment. Researchers from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and Novartis Pharmaceuticals in Basel, Switzerland, created a drug based on Gleevec, the current treatment, that causes longer remissions. Approximately 95 percent of CML patients treated with Gleevec currently achieve remission. Gleevec blocks the growth of an abnormal protein present in leukemia cells, but it only blocks growth briefly, because it does not bond strongly to the protein and patients eventually develop a resistance. The researchers determined the crystal structure of the abnormal protein and constructed a compound that would lock onto the receptor more securely than Gleevec. In experiments with laboratory samples of leukemia cells, the new drug killed the cells more effectively than Gleevec, and in follow-up studies with mice it produced lengthier remissions. Researchers are testing new drug at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and if proven safe, it will be tested on CML patients at Dana-Farber and other sites, they said. © Copyright 2005 by United Press International

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