Losartan, a common blood pressure medication, may enhance the effectiveness of chemotherapy for acute myeloid leukemia while reducing the risk of cardiac damage.
Summary: Researchers at the University of Missouri School of Medicine discovered that losartan, a common blood pressure medication, may enhance chemotherapy effectiveness for acute myeloid leukemia while reducing the risk of cardiotoxicity. The study, published in Science Translational Medicine, found that inhibiting the AGTR1 receptor with losartan in mice slowed leukemia development and improved survival rates. Further investigation in human clinical trials is needed to validate these findings.
Key Takeaways:
- Dual Benefits of Losartan: Losartan may enhance chemotherapy for acute myeloid leukemia and protect the heart from treatment-related toxicity by inhibiting the AGTR1 receptor.
- Promising Preclinical Results: The study in mice showed losartan slowed leukemia progression and led to longer survival, indicating potential for improved patient outcomes.
- Future Human Trials: The next step involves human clinical trials to confirm losartan’s effectiveness in acute myeloid leukemia treatment, potentially accelerating its approval due to its existing FDA clearance.
A targeted gene therapy may make acute myeloid leukemia more sensitive to chemotherapy, while also protecting against cardiotoxicity often caused by cancer treatments, according to researchers from the University of Missouri School of Medicine.
Acute myeloid leukemia is the most common type of leukemia in adults, and the resulting chemotherapy treatment can put patients at an increased risk for cardiac damage.
Associate professor of medicine Xunlei Kang, MD, PhD, and PhD students Yi Pan and Chen Wang led a study looking at similarities between leukemia and cardiovascular disease. They found a shared target, AGTR1, a receptor responsible for cell reproduction, was overabundant in the blood cells of patients with leukemia.
Research Findings and Losartan’s Role
The researchers used losartan, a common medicine for treating high blood pressure, to inhibit the AGTR1 receptor in mice. This disrupted cancer growth, slowing the development of leukemia and led to longer survival.
The study was published in Science Translational Medicine.
The next step is to further investigate losartan’s effectiveness in treating human leukemia patients.
“Mouse models of leukemia differ from human disease in several ways, including differences in the immune system, the bone marrow microenvironment and responses to treatments,” Pan says in a release. “We will now carefully interpret and validate these findings in human studies to ensure translational relevance.”
Future Directions and Clinical Trials
If these findings are confirmed in human clinical trials, the approval process to use losartan would be shorter compared to other medications, since it’s already US Food and Drug Administration-approved and will not require comprehensive data about the drug.
“When we treated mice with the AGTR1 inhibitor losartan, we observed that this commercially available drug shows great promise in reducing [acute myeloid leukemia] development while protecting against chemotherapy-induced cardiotoxicity,” Kang says in a release. “This finding shows great potential to both enhance the success of chemotherapy while protecting the heart.”
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