Molecular Parameters of Drug Resistance (Project D)

Author: Dr. med. Ralf Herold, Last modification: 2004/06/16

Molecular Parameters of Cytostatic Drug Resistance for the Stratification of Therapy of Acute Leukemia

Non- and late reaction to therapy are the two known major risk factors for acute leukemia in children. The molecular characteristics responsible for this are being tested with the apoptosis signal pathways of patients leukemia cells. Constitutive expression of apoptosis molecules can be examined easily but is altered heavily in the course of the therapy. This is why an Emphasis of the project has to be on the development of test systems allowing to monitor the response to chemotherapy. To do so, molecules relevant for apoptosis and effector caspases are being compared to an established test method (MTT assay) and the patients reported morphologic reaction.

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