New treatment for multiple myeloma based on RNA technology

Multiple myeloma images

A statement from Tel Aviv University said this was the first time this treatment method had been applied, with the results killing 90% of multiple myeloma blood cancer cells in laboratory conditions and 60% of human tissue cells taken from patients at Rabin Medical Center in Israel.

The researchers developed lipid nanoparticles similar to those used in Covid-19 vaccines, containing RNA molecules that can inactivate the gene CKAP5, which codes for cytoskeleton-associated protein 5. By inhibiting this protein, cancer cells cannot divide and are essentially killed. To avoid harming healthy cells, the team created an antibody coating on the nanoparticles to guide them to target only cancer cells in the bone marrow.

According to the research team, multiple myeloma is a type of blood cancer that usually occurs in older people. While most blood cancers appear in the bloodstream or lymph nodes and from there spread to the rest of the body, multiple myeloma appears and forms tumors inside the bone marrow, making it very difficult to access. There are many possible treatments for this disease, but after a certain period of improvement, most patients become resistant to the drugs and the disease relapses even more aggressively. Therefore, developing new treatments for multiple myeloma is always of interest. RNA-based therapies have a great advantage in this case due to the very fast development speed.

According to the research team, each time the RNA molecule is changed, a gene is disabled, so this treatment can be customized according to the progression of the disease and for each patient.

The drug developed in this study is the first system to specifically target cancer cells inside the bone marrow and the first to show that silencing the CKAP5 gene can help kill leukemia cells, opening up a new world of RNA-based drugs and vaccines for treating tumors or cancers that originate in the bone marrow.

The study was conducted by a team of experts from Tel Aviv University and Rabin Medical Center. The results of the study were published in the journal Advanced Science.

According to VNA