Ohio Logo Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is known as the most common form of adult leukemia in the United States. In the course of treating this aliment, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, biological therapy, or bone marrow transplantation may be adopted. Apparently experts from the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center-Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC-James) have found an agent that targets CLL and also other proliferative disorders of lymphocytes.

Scientists claim that the small-molecule inhibitor called as CAL-101 directly promotes cell death by apoptosis in CLL cells. This molecular inhibitor is further believed to disrupt many external survival pathways essential for CLL cell viability and proliferation. The agent seems to block a molecule known as PI3K-delta. It is known that this molecule is an isomer of the PI3K (phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase) pathway. PI3K-delta may be mostly activated in blood-forming, or hematopoietic, cells.

Though it is possible that people with asymptomatic phase of CLL can live many years without treatment, but as the disease progresses to symptomatic phase, treatment is required. Generally such patients may be subjected to a chemotherapy-based regimen that often induces remission. It was mentioned that present day therapies are probably not curative and almost all patients deteriorate. The PI3K pathway known to be critical for cell survival is considered an unfavorable target for small molecule inhibitors.

Amy J. Johnson, an assistant professor of hematology and medicinal chemistry, a CLL researcher in the OSUCCC-James and the principal investigator, alleged, “Overall, our findings provide a rationale for the development of CAL-101 as the first in a new class of targeted therapies for CLL. A PI3K inhibitor hasn’t been developed yet because this pathway is required for many essential cellular functions, but the identification of PI3K-delta, which is hematopoietic-selective, unlocks a potential new therapy for B-cell malignancies.”

A prior investigation declared that PI3K-delta expression takes place mostly in hematopoi