By studying blood samples from patients recovering from bone marrow transplants, Australian scientists have been able to extract information that could help us fight certain cancers and autoimmune diseases.

B cells, the immune cells that produce antibodies, start their development in the bone marrow and complete it in peripheral blood and tissues. The developmental process in humans can be easily studied in people who have had their bone marrow destroyed and then reconstituted from donors, because clinical samples are collected at defined periods of time following the transplant.

PhD student Santi Suryani and Dr Stuart Tangye from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research have identified an important checkpoint in the development process, where the body gets rid of rogue B cells which see ‘self’ as the enemy and so allow the body to attack itself – as in autoimmune diseases such as lupus.

Their findings, which describe a ‘molecular signature’, or fingerprint, for B cells at this crucial stage of development are now online in the international journal Blood.

“By identifying exactly where B cells are in their stage of development, you can better understand and target specific B cell diseases” said Dr Tangye.

 “Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, for instance, may be a malignancy of the B cell subset we’ve described. As we now know what the normal counterpart of the diseased B cell looks like, we are in a position to learn more about that type of leukemia.”

“In the case of lupus, an autoimmune disease where antibodies are produced that recognise self DNA, there seems to be a problem getting rid of the self-reactive B cells - at this point of the development process.”

“We will get to the stage where we know which genes are expressed in populations of cells at every phase of B cell development, allowing us to catalogue the subsets of cells.”

This knowledge should help us identify more specific therapeutic targets that will improve the treatment of diseases resulting from self-reactive or malignant B cells.

ABOUT GARVAN

The Garvan Institute of Medical Research was founded in 1963.  Initially a research department of St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, it is now one of Australia's largest medical research institutions with nearly 500 scientists, students and support staff. Garvan’s main research programs are: Cancer, Diabetes & Obesity, Immunology and Inflammation, Osteoporosis and Bone Biology, and Neuroscience. The Garvan’s mission is to make significant contributions to medical science that will change the directions of science and medicine and have major impacts on human health. The outcome of Garvan’s discoveries is the development of better methods of diagnosis, treatment, and ultimately, prevention of disease.

MEDIA ENQUIRIES
Alison Heather
Science Communications Manager
Garvan Institute of Medical Research
+61 2 9295 8128
+61 434 071 326
a.heather “at” garvan.org.au