Eye drop ingredient could be used to combat blood cancer

A compound that was in development for the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration could potentially be used to combat an aggressive form of blood cancer.

Writing in Nature Communications, scientists describe experiments where patient-derived acute myeloid leukaemia cells were transplanted into immunocompromised mice.

The mice were then treated with the compound, SPHINX31, which was originally formulated to target retinal neovascular disease.

Scientists found that the growth of cancer cells was inhibited in the mice following treatment and the mice did not show any noticeable side effects.

Dr George Vassiliou highlighted that the compound restricted the growth of acute myeloid leukaemia without harming healthy cells.

“This shows promise as a potential approach for treating this aggressive leukaemia in humans,” he emphasised.