Preventing Rogue Cells From Cloning Could Stop Blood Cancer

Scientists investigating a root cause of leukemia have made a key discovery around how genetic mutations can cause blood stem cells to go rogue, forming dangerous populations of cloned cells that can go on to become cancerous, Nick Lavars reported for New Atlas.

Photo Insert: Clonal hematopoiesis is a natural part of aging but is also associated with cardiovascular disease, solid tumors, and in rare cases can lead to diseases of the blood and in turn leukemia.

The team's experiments on zebrafish not only shed new light on how these cells protect themselves as they rapidly multiply, but reveal new targets for scientists looking to halt blood cancer in its early stages.

Conducted by scientists at the Boston Children's Hospital, the study focuses on what is known as clonal hematopoiesis. This is caused by genetic mutations and sees blood stem cells multiply at a disproportionate rate compared to other cells, quickly forming distinct populations of cloned cells that can then become dominant.

Clonal hematopoiesis is a natural part of aging but is also associated with cardiovascular disease, solid tumors, and in rare cases can lead to diseases of the blood and in turn leukemia.

The authors of this new study published in the journal Science set out to explore the idea that these rogue populations of cloned blood stem cells, which can come to comprise up to 30 percent of a person's blood cells, could be prevented from taking shape. Because children with blood disorders can develop clonal hematopoiesis early in life, such interventions could be key to preventing the onset of potentially fatal blood cancers.

“These children have a germline mutation that puts them at risk for developing leukemia earlier in life,” explains study author Serine Avagyan.

“They can develop clonal hematopoiesis in adolescence and sometimes at a younger age. We think these predisposition syndromes fast-forward the process of clonal hematopoiesis, resulting in early-onset leukemia.”

For their study, the scientists turned to the tried and trusted zebrafish, which often serves as a model for researchers as it features a remarkably similar genome to humans and their embryos happen to be transparent. In this case, that meant the scientists could watch developing blood cells in real-time and see how different genetic mutations altered their activity.

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