Study finds nutrient's role in childhood blood cancer

Dec 24, 2021

New Delhi, Dec 24 (ANI): According to a new study published in the 'Nature Journal', a molecular building block of many animal proteins, amino acid valine, plays a key role in cancerous growth seen in T cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. Led by researchers at NYU Langone Health, its Department of Pathology, and the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center, the study showed that genes involved in using up valine in cells were more active in cancerous T cells than in normal T cells. Blocking these valine-linked genes not only led to decreased valine in leukaemia blood T cells but also stalled these tumour cells from growing in the lab. Only 2 per cent of cancerous T cells remained alive.