Scientists at the Children's Center for Cancer and Blood
Diseases and The Saban Research Institute of Children's Hospital
Los Angeles today announced a breakthrough discovery in
understanding how the body fights leukemia. They have identified
a protein called CD19-ligand (CD19-L) located on the surface of
certain white blood cells that facilitates the recognition and
destruction of leukemia cells by the immune system. This work
represents the first report of a bioengineered version of
CD19-L, a recombinant human biotherapeutic agent, targeting
CD19-positive leukemic stem cells. B-lineage acute lymphoblastic
leukemia (ALL) is the most common cancer occurring in children
and adolescents. Despite having received intensive chemotherapy,
some patients have recurring disease. For these individuals, the
prospect of long-term survival is poor. "We need new anti-
leukemia therapies capable of killing chemotherapy-resistant
leukemia cells in patients with relapsed ALL. These are the
cells that are the most difficult to