Researchers have found promising signs that an immune system protein could protect the gut and prevent some of the potentially deadly side effects of bone marrow transplantation performed for blood cancer.
What is IL-29?
Interferons are named after their ability to ‘interfere’ with replication within host cells. Their main function is to deliver a message to the cells, rather than attack them directly. IL-29 is showing promising results in the prevention of the destruction of the gut lining in leukaemia and lymphoma patients who have developed GVHD. |
L-29 is a type of cytokine, that is a protein structure released by our immune cells.Bone marrow transplants can cure blood cancers like leukaemia and lymphoma. However, in up to 70 per cent of recipients, the transplant causes a potentially deadly complication of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), where the donor’s immune cells attack the host’s tissues, including the skin, gut and lungs.
The study’s early results suggest the immune protein Interferon-Lambda – also known as IL-29 – could strengthen the gut lining and help prevent the gut damage often caused by bone marrow transplants and GVHD.
QIMR Berghofer researcher and Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital transplant physician Dr Andrea Henden said the team hoped IL-29 could become a new preventative option for GVHD.
‘Graft-versus-host disease is a terrible complication of bone marrow transplantation, especially when it involves the gut,’ Dr Henden said.
‘At the moment, there are limited effective treatments available, so we desperately need new options to prevent this often fatal disease.
‘Interferon-Lambda is already available as a drug for other diseases, so we hope to also start testing it in patients with gut damage and inflammation.
‘If we could make bone marrow transplantation safer, then we could use it to treat more patients with blood cancer. Hopefully, we could also reduce the use of toxic drugs in patients who develop GVHD.
‘Our findings also suggest that Interferon-Lambda could help prevent the gut inflammation that occurs in other disorders like inflammatory bowel disease and Crohn’s. As a next step, we also hope to test whether this is the case.’
The study was funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Leukaemia Foundation.
The study was led by the head of QIMR Berghofer’s Immunopathology Laboratory, Dr Kate Gartlan, and Professor Geoff Hill, who is now based at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.
What is IL-29?L-29 is a type of cytokine, that is a protein structure released by our immune cells. Interferons are named after their ability to ‘interfere’ with replication within host cells. Their main function is to deliver a message to the cells, rather than attack them directly. IL-29 is showing promising results in the prevention of the destruction of the gut lining in leukaemia and lymphoma patients who have developed GVHD. |
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