New compounds that target leukemia stem cells are moving into the clinic this summer. But researchers have yet to pin down exactly how some of these compounds do their job. Today at the International Society for Stem Cell Research's (ISSCR) annual meeting, linkurl:Craig Jordan;http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/GEBS/faculty/Craig_Jordan.htm from the University of Rochester presented his group's recent work on a compound TDZD-8, which was originally developed to inhibit GSK-3, and potentially treat Alzheimer's disease. Jordan's group linkurl:reported;http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17785584?ordinalpos=4&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum last year that TDZD-8 is cytotoxic exclusively for malignant leukemia stem cells; the compound caused the death of leukemia and related disease stem cells within just 15 minutes of being applied to the cell samples. Further investigation showed that the cancer stem cells' membranes break down just before cell death. Jordan's team has not come closer to understanding how the compound is able to achieve this dramatic effect. When an audience member asked just this question during...
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