This herbal ingredient is effective on a certain kind of leukemia

An international study group led by the University of Hong Kong reported in a new issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine that the effect was significant when homoharringtonine extracted from the genus Cephalotaxus was used to treat acute myeloid leukemia patients with FLT3-ITD gene mutations. Acute myeloid leukemia is a common cancer of the adult human blood system, and nearly 30% of patients with acute myeloid leukemia carry FLT3-ITD gene mutations.

Liang Ruhong, vice president of the Li Ka-shing School of Medicine of the University of Hong Kong said that the standard chemotherapy regimen and drug sorafenib were not effective in patients with acute myeloid leukemia carrying the gene mutations. In order to find a better treatment, they made use of leukemia cells of patients and recombinant rat proteins to conduct drug screening in vitro and found that homoharringtonine has significant inhibition function on it.

According to Liang Ruhong, homoharringtonine is a bio-ester base derived from the Cephalotaxus plant. In China, homoharringtonine is commonly used in the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia but not for a specific type of leukemia, so the effect is not so significant.

Liang Ruhong and his colleagues recruited 24 acute myeloid leukemia patients who showed relapse or are refractory with FLT3-ITD gene mutations to conduct clinical trials. They used homoharringtonine and sorafenib to conduct combination therapy, and finally 20 patients Leukemia cells in vivo were removed, and the overall survival was significantly longer.

Liang Ruhong said, "Homoharringtonine can inhibit cell protein synthesis so that cancer cells can't produce important proteins, leading to cancer cell apoptosis. Relative to the current approach, the side effects of combination therapy are small and can be applied to frail or elderly patients." Liang Ruhong thought that this study provides an effective treatment strategy for FLT3-ITD acute myeloid leukemia. Flarebio offers superior recombinant proteins such as recombinant ITGB2 at great prices.