BioCentury
ARTICLE | Targets & Mechanisms

Hedgehog joins the resistance

July 17, 2014 7:00 AM UTC

Increased glucuronidation by activated hedgehog signaling turns out to be the root of drug resistance for at least two compounds in acute myeloid leukemia.1Inhibiting the pathway could avoid the toxicity of general glucuronidase suppression and boost the efficacy of standard acute myeloid leukemia therapies.

The Canadian team behind the study now plans to test a combination of ribavirin, a chemotherapeutic nucleoside analog, with an inhibitor of smoothened (SMO), a druggable player in the hedgehog pathway...