Suppressing AML through SIRPA

Researchers at The Hospital for Sick Children, University Health Network and University of Toronto have shown that targeting SIRPA disrupts its interaction with CD47 on macrophages and could help eliminate acute myelogenous leukemia stem cells.¹ The data provide validation for a SIRPA-Fc fusion protein being developed by Trillium Therapeutics Inc. that antagonizes the SIRPA-CD47 interaction-the biotech hopes to submit an IND in 2014.

CD47 is a membrane protein broadly expressed across tissues. It interacts with multiple proteins, including SIRPA (signal regulatory protein-a)...