Chronic Lymphoid Leukemia Research
Our laboratory focuses on the study of the mechanisms involved in the origins and progression of Chronic Lymphoid Leukemia (CLL), the most common type of leukemia in people over 50 years, whose incidence in Uruguay is 5 cases per 100,000 people. CLL originates in cells of the immune system known as B lymphocytes, which lose their ability to die and begin to accumulate in the blood. Although many patients with CLL respond to current treatments, some don’t.
The B lymphocyte is one of the most specialized cells of the immune system and is able to re-edit its DNA, thanks to the action of the cytidine deaminase (AID), an enzyme necessary to respond in the presence of different infections.
However, the mutagenic action of the AID enzyme also has its negative aspects since B lymphocytes are continually exposed to damage of their DNA. Although the control mechanisms on AID are many and redundant, they sometimes fail, and in their absence this enzyme can be overexpressed in tumour cells, causing cancer progression and / or refractoriness in its treatment.
Our advances are related to the characterization of the expression of the AID enzyme in patients with CLL, and the development of animal models to study the causes of the progression of the disease and the refractoriness in the treatment.
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