Researchers at the University of California San Diego have found that acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells resist proteasome inhibitor drugs by activating a backup survival pathway. This knowledge allowed them to devise a combination of two drugs that can dismantle this resistance mechanism, slowing down the growth and expansion of AML cells. These findings were published today in the journal Blood .

Proteasome inhibitors are a class of drugs that target the waste disposal system of the cells responsible for clearing out proteins that are no longer needed. To sustain their rapid growth, cancer cells require high levels of protein turnover, and therefore disrupting proteasome activity can halt their spread. However, while these drugs are routinely used as a frontline treatment for mu

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