Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is an aggressive form of blood cancer. It is caused by mutations in a large number of genes acquired during a person’s lifetime. One of these genes, the tumor suppressor gene TP53, plays a key role. Normally, TP53 helps prevent the development of tumors. However, blood cancer patients with this mutated gene face an extremely poor prognosis, as their genes are resistant to conventional chemotherapeutic agents. Intensive research is therefore being carried out into new therapeutic approaches, such as CAR T lymphocytes, already successfully used for other blood cancers. In particular, an international research team has shown that TP53 mutant AML cells are significantly more resistant to CAR T cell therapy than AML cells without the mutated gene. In their study, the researchers not only examined the mechanism underlying the resistance of mutated AML cells to CAR T cell immunotherapy, but also discovered how the endurance of CAR T cells can be increased, and how a weak point in TP53 mutant AML cells can be exploited to overcome this resistance.
