Rice, MD Anderson researchers discover new leukemia-killing compounds

Rice University and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center discovered potential new drugs that work in concert with other drugs to kill leukemia, Rice University announced in a release late last month.

Though the drugs are still years away from being tested in cancer patients, a recently published study in the journal Leukemia highlights their promise and the methods that led to their discovery.

In the study, Rice biochemist Natasha Kirienko and MD Anderson physician-scientist Marina Konopleva chose several small-molecule compounds, and closely related analogs, that target mitochondria and conducted tens of thousands of tests to determine how toxic each analog was to leukemia cells, both when administered individually or in combination with existing chemotherapy drugs.

Kirienko appeared on KPRC 2+ to share the findings of the study. Watch the full interview in the video player at the top of the page.

Read the full, peer-reviewed paper here: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41375-022-01614-0.

You can stream KPRC 2+ weekdays at 7 a.m. on click2houston.com and on the KPRC 2 app.