Methadone can be effective in killing leukemia cells
2008-08-02 17:59:53 (GMT) (Caymanmama.com - Health News News)San Bernardino, California (CaymanMama.com) — According to a recent study, it has been found that methadone, the drug used for breaking addiction to opioid drugs like heroin, can potently kill leukemia cells. Claudia Friesen, senior author of the study from the Institute of Legal Medicine in University Ulm of Germany, said that methadone can kill these sensitive cells and break treatment resistance without any poisonous effects upon the non-leukemic cells in the blood. The study was published on August 1st in the Cancer Research issue.
Methadone blocks the opioid receptors that exist on the exterior of some cancer cells. Tests on leukemia cells proved that methadone is just as effective as radiation treatments and standard chemotherapies against non-resistance cells. Methadone can also kill leukemia effectively which is resistant to radiation and multiple chemotherapies.
Researchers found that methadone can activate the mitochondrial pathway within leukemia cells that switches on enzymes known as caspases. In this way, a cell is prompted into programmed death of the cell or apoptosis. Same approach is used by chemotherapy drugs but caspases were activated by methadone in leukemia cells and deficient activation was reversed in the resistant cells.
The methadone doses used for killing these cells were much greater than that used for treating opioid addiction but the researchers found that a low daily methadone dose can be helpful in achieving the same effects. Friesen said that while methadone may become addictive, this habit is easier to give up than the true opioids. She said that addiction should not become an impossible problem if the drug is used as anti-cancer therapy.
Friesen said that studies with the use of methadone on animal human leukemia models are beginning and others are looking into what agents are effective for other cancers. One of the research groups has already proved that methadone can induce death of cells in the cell lines of lung cancer in humans.
CaymanMama.com - Press Release Distribution Service
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