Pierre Bercier, an ATER in Professor Hugues de Thé's teambased at the Collège de France and Hôpital Saint-Louis, is studying the mechanisms by which arsenic can cure patients suffering from a rare form of leukemia. This disease, called acute promyelocytic leukemia, is caused by a chromosomal aberration that results in the fusion of two genes, PML and RARA. Expression of the PML-RARA protein blocks the differentiation of immature blood cells, which then invade the bloodstream.
A combination therapy containing arsenic cures up to 98 % of patients, with no risk of relapse and no need for additional chemotherapy. The team's previous work had shown that arsenic cures almost all patients through its ability to bind to a PML domain and trigger degradation of the PML-RARA fusion protein responsible for the disease. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms remained unknown.
In a study published onDecember 1 2023 in the journal Cancer Discovery, Pierre Bercier and scientists from Collège de France, Inserm and CNRS, in collaboration with the team of Prof. Hua Naranmandura and Prof. Chun Zhou from Zhejiang University in China, have elucidated these mechanisms, opening up new perspectives in the management of other cancers. This work was awarded the Laurette Fugain 2024 prize, which rewards a young researcher for his/her work in the fight against leukemia and his/her contribution to the excellence of French research.
