Feature Channels: Blood

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In two separate studies on CEBPA mutations in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) subtypes, researchers led by Professor Daniel Tenen, Director, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore at the National University of Singapore, successfully identified and validated a gene known as Sox4 as a potential therapeutic target and a class of anti-cancer drugs, histone deacetylase inhibitors, as potential candidates in the treatment of certain AML.

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An international group of scientists lead by Tim Anderson Ph.D., at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute and Philip LoVerde Ph.D., at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio has identified the mutations that result in drug resistance in a parasite infecting 187 million people in South America, Africa and Asia. The new finding allows detailed understanding of the drugs’ mechanism of action and raises prospects of improved therapies.

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Researchers from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have identified new proteins that control the function of critical immune cell subsets called T-cells, which are responsible for a serious and often deadly side effect of lifesaving bone marrow transplants.

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Low levels of the “sunshine” vitamin D appear to increase a child’s risk of anemia, according to new research led by investigators at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. The study, published online Oct. 10 in the Journal of Pediatrics, is believed to be the first one to extensively explore the link between the two conditions in children.

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Certain pediatric surgeries carry such low risk of serious blood loss that clinicians can safely forgo expensive blood typing and blood stocking before such procedures, suggest the results of a small study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.

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The benefits of hydroxyurea treatment in people with sickle cell disease are well known -- fewer painful episodes, fewer blood transfusions and fewer hospitalizations. Now new research from the Johns Hopkins Children's Center and other institutions reveals that by preventing such complications, the drug can also considerably lower the overall cost of medical care in children with this condition.

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Researchers have discovered the first inherited gene mutation linked exclusively to acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) occurring in multiple relatives in individual families.

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Case Western Reserve researchers have identified a genetic factor that blocks the blood vessel inflammation that can lead to heart attacks, strokes and other potentially life-threatening events. The breakthrough involving Kruppel-like factor (KLF) 15 is the latest in a string of discoveries from the laboratory of professor of medicine Mukesh K. Jain, MD, FAHA, that involves a remarkable genetic family.

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drug proven effective for treatment of adults and children with sickle cell anemia reduced hospitalizations and cut annual estimated medical costs by 21 percent for affected infants and toddlers, according to an analysis led by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

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Fifteen years ago, a hematologist came to Dianna Milewicz, M.D., Ph.D., with a puzzle: Multiple generations of an East Texas family suffered from a moderately severe bleeding disorder, but it wasn’t hemophilia.

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Celiac disease patients with ongoing intestine damage have a greater than 2-fold increased risk of lymphoma vs. celiac patients whose intestines healed. Findings will be published in the Aug. 6 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine.

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UCLA Researchers have successfully established the foundation for using hematopoietic (blood-producing) stem cells from the bone marrow of patients with sickle cell disease to treat the disease.

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The often forgotten lymphatic circulatory system may be intimately involved in vascular disorders, according to a study by researchers from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) and University of Michigan. Their research was reported recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Joseph Pidala, M.D., M.S., assistant member of the Blood and Bone Marrow Transplant and Immunology programs at Moffitt Cancer Center, and colleagues from the Chronic Graft-Versus-Host Disease Consortium have determined that certain gastrointestinal and liver-related types of chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) are associated with worsened quality of life and death.

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Seeking to improve the lives of sickle cell anemia sufferers around the world, researchers from the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, the Dana-Farber/Children's Hospital Cancer Center in Boston and the BloodCenter of Wisconsin in Milwaukee and others are preparing to launch Phase II of a clinical trial to investigate a potential new therapy for reducing the disorder’s severest symptoms. More than 100,000 Americans and several million people worldwide suffer from this genetic disorder.

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A newfound genetic marker promises to better predict warfarin dose in African-Americans, according to a study published online today in The Lancet.

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Albert Einstein College of Medicine researchers have discovered that chemo induces a type of nerve damage inside bone marrow that can cause delays in recovery after bone marrow transplantation. The findings suggest that combining chemotherapy with nerve-protecting agents may prevent long-term bone marrow injury.

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Study will help physicians calculate risk of post-surgical venous thromboembolisms. New research from the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center may help clinicians determine which patients are at highest risk for post-surgical blood clots in the legs or lungs.

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Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have found that macrophages – white blood cells that play a key role in the immune response – also help to both produce and eliminate the body’s red blood cells (RBCs). The findings could lead to novel therapies for diseases or conditions in which the red blood cell production is thrown out of balance. The study, conducted in mice, is published today in the online edition of the journal Nature Medicine.

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Thanks to a third brother, two brothers were cured of sickle cell disease through a relatively uncommon type of stem cell transplant without chemotherapy.

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An antidepressant drug used since the 1960s may also hold promise for treating sickle cell disease, according to a surprising new finding made in mice and human red blood cells by a team has spent more than three decades studying the basic biology of the condition.

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Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection affects 4 million in the US and is the prirmary cause of liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. New research shows that daclatasvir, an ant - HCV drug, has two modes of action and provides a more accurate estimate of the HCV half-life.

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When it comes to healing the terrible wounds of war, success may hinge on the first blood clot – the one that begins forming on the battlefield right after an injury. Researchers believe the initial response to injury may control subsequent healing.

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Patients at NorthShore University HealthSystem are now better protected against potentially deadly infections, according to a newly published study.

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Today, in a new section called JAMA Clinical Evidence Synopsis, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), published a summary of the systematic review of the 19 clinical trials that compare higher versus lower hemoglobin thresholds in red blood cell transfusion. The comprehensive review concludes that there is no significant difference in patient outcomes with red blood cell transfusions using lower threshold levels.

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Failure to launch an adequate immune response may be at the root of septic shock, according to a study published in The Journal of Experimental Medicine on December 17th.

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Dana-Farber researchers found an experimental drug combination for preventing graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) was not significantly better than the standard regimen of care, but that the new combination could provide an alternative that could be preferable in certain scenarios.

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Dana-Farber researchers found levels galectin-1, an immunity-related protein, could be the basis of a test and potentially a targeted treatment for Hodgkin lymphoma.

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Patients with sickle cell disease rely more on the emergency room as they move from pediatric to adult health care, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

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Claudio Anasetti, M.D., chair of the Department of Blood & Marrow Transplant at Moffitt Cancer Center, and colleagues from 47 research sites in the Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network conducted a two-year clinical trial comparing two-year survival probabilities for patients transplanted with peripheral blood stem cells or bone marrow stem cells from unrelated donors. The goal was to determine whether graft source, peripheral blood stem cells or bone marrow, affects outcomes in unrelated donor transplants for patients with leukemia or other hematologic malignancies.

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Researchers at Drexel University have identified the physical forces in red blood cells and blood vessels underlying the painful symptoms of sickle cell disease. Their experiment, the first to answer a scientific question about sickle cell disease using microfluidics engineering methods, may help future researchers better determine who is at greatest risk of harm from the disease.

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In children and adolescents with hemophilia, vigorous physical activity was associated with an elevated risk of bleeding, although it appears the absolute increase in risk may be small

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RyMed Technologies will host a breakfast symposium on the origin of catheter-related bloodstream infections (CRBSIs) and how to prevent them at the upcoming Annual Scientific Meeting of the Association for Vascular Access (AVA).

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Studying leukemia in mice, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have reduced a life-threatening complication of stem cell transplants, the only curative treatment when leukemia returns.

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In a preliminary clinical trial, investigators at Johns Hopkins have shown that even partially matched bone marrow transplants can eliminate sickle cell disease in some patients, ridding them of painful and debilitating symptoms and the need for a lifetime of pain medications and blood transfusions.

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Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center and colleagues have discovered that changes in the physical characteristics of the effector memory regulatory T cell can predict the progression risk of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) to acute myeloid leukemia. The finding could improve prognostication for patients with MDS and better inform therapeutic decision making.

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A new study by researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College shows combining two already-FDA approved drugs may offer a new and potent punch against diseases in which blood vessel growth is abnormal -- such as cancer, diabetic retinopathy, macular degeneration and rheumatoid arthritis.

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St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital reports success using a targeted educational approach to teach young sickle cell disease patients to remain motionless during MRI scans, making the process safer.

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By examining the results of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in conjunction with experiments on mouse and human red blood cells, researchers in the lab of Whitehead Institute Founding Member Harvey Lodish have identified the protein cyclin D3 as regulating the number of cell divisions RBC progenitors undergo, which ultimately affects the resulting size and quantity of RBCs.

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September is Sickle Cell Disease Awareness Month. Sickle cell disease is a common inherited blood disorder, affecting an estimated 90,000 to 100,000 Americans. The Cancer Institute of New Jersey -- which has a comprehensive program for sickle cell patients -- is making experts available to comment on the condition as well as the latest options in treatment for sickle cell patients.

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For the first time, researchers have established the ability of retinoblastoma (Rb) and E2F proteins to interact with each other without binding -- and found that an interaction between Rb and E2F8 promotes the formation of red blood cells.

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Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center have conducted a clinical trial aimed at preventing graft vs. host disease (GVHD) in patients who have received hematopoietic (blood) cell transplants (HCT). The study, comparing the drug tacrolimus (TAC) in combination with either methotrexate (MTX ) or sirolimus (SIR), found that the sirolimus/tacrolimus (SIR/TAC) combination was more effective in preventing grades II-IV acute GVHD and moderate-severe chronic GVHD after allogeneic blood cell transplantation.

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A landmark study conducted by Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI) Senior Scientist Elizabeth Theil, PhD, and collaborators at Hunter College/ Graduate Center City University of New York and Case Western Reserve University, demonstrates for the first time that ferrous iron (Fe2+) binds directly to a ribonucleic (RNA) complex to result in a conformational change that ultimately increases iron synthesis. This discovery has profound implications on the fundamental understanding of how Fe2+ and other metal ions interact with RNA, but also provides a potential model for treating dangerous and life-threatening iron overload and for targeting viruses that use similar mechanisms to bind to RNA.

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A new analysis concludes that rituximab, a drug commonly used to treat blood cancers, leads to treatment responses lasting at least five years in approximately one quarter of patients with low platelet counts and a risk of bleeding due to chronic immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP). In study results published online today in Blood, the Journal of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), investigators at Weill Cornell Medical College provide the very first long-term outcome data for patients with chronic ITP treated with rituxamab.

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Older adults at much greater risk for being hospitalized for a blood clot within three months of getting an infection.

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A natural enzyme derived from human blood plasma showed potential in significantly reducing the effects of graft-vs.-host disease, a common and deadly side effect of lifesaving bone marrow transplants.

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A Rush University Medical Center led international research team has announced that a treatment to prevent bleeding episodes in children with hemophilia A also is effective for adolescents and adults.

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Highlights • Correcting anemia in kidney transplant recipients slows the progression of kidney failure and improves the function of transplanted kidneys. • Transplant patients with completely corrected anemia experience a significant improvement in quality of life. • Anemia is a common complication of kidney transplantation, with a prevalence of 25% to 40% after the first year.

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Symptoms improved significantly in adults with the bleeding disorder hemophilia B following a single treatment with gene therapy developed by researchers at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis and demonstrated to be safe in a clinical trial conducted at the University College London (UCL) in the U.K.