Analysis of drug resistance and role of stem cell niche in leukaemia

Proposal by Professor Marija Krstic-Demonacos, School of Environment & Life Sciences

Leukaemia and lymphomas are the most frequent type of cancer in children and among the leading causes of cancer related deaths in adults.

One of the main treatments of this cancer includes glucocorticoid hormones. Side effects and resistance to glucocorticoid based therapy are often diagnosed and one of the reasons that effective treatment of these diseases has not been developed so far. The mechanism by which glucocorticoid hormones mediate their therapeutic effect is by inducing programmed cell death or apoptosis through the intracellular protein called glucocorticoid receptor (GR).

The aim of this research is to discover novel mechanisms used by glucocorticoid hormones and potentially other new compounds, to exert their pharmacological effects by inducing apoptosis, to improve the current treatments and develop novel more efficient therapeutic approaches to leukaemia. This study will analyse the role of oxidative stress and stem cell niche in conferring resistance to glucocorticoid induced apoptosis in leukaemia, and in particular characterise the genes that stimulate specific signalling pathways that lead to drug resistance in cancer.

For further information, please email r.h.elder@salford.ac.uk

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