Researchers have discovered a genetic mutation that causes an aggressive form of childhood leukemia and said on Thursday it may mean that drugs being developed for Alzheimer’s disease could also provide a better treatment for the cancer. The cancer, called T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia or T-ALL, is cured about 75 percent of the time with chemotherapy, but it is a toxic treatment that leaves children vulnerable to other health problems later in life. Andrew Weng of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston discovered that mutations in a gene called NOTCH1, which made it overactive, could be found in nearly 60 percent of all T-ALL tumors. NOTCH1 helps control the development of T-cells, the immune cells that proliferate out of control in this form of cancer. It must be chopped up to work. The gamma-secretase enzyme, which also chops up brain proteins involved in Alzheimer’s disease, helps cut NOTCH1. Alzheimer’s researchers have been studying drugs that affect gamma-secretase. It might be worth studying them in T-ALL, Weng’s team said in Friday’s issue of the journal Science.
