LOS ANGELES, July 11 (UPI) -- U.S. medical scientists have found a gene known as HDAC1 might be a good target for treatment of multi-drug-resistant neuroblastoma.
The Childrens Hospital Los Angeles researchers said drug resistance might explain the high mortality rate among patients with neuroblastoma -- a cancer that develops in immature nerve cells and is prevalent in children.
In the study led by Dr. Nino Keshelava, investigators looked at several human neuroblastoma cell lines to identify genes that cause drug resistance.
They found HDAC1 was overexpressed in multi-drug resistant cells, compared with drug-sensitive cells. Blocking HDAC1 made the cells more sensitive to chemotherapy drugs that treat neuroblastoma.
"This gene is of particular interest because (HDAC) inhibitors are a relatively new class of cancer chemotherapeutic agents undergoing preclinical testing for clinical development in the treatment of drug-resistant neuroblastoma," the authors write.
The study appears in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
