Avocado Might Offer Route to Better Leukemia Treatment: Study

"The cell relies on that pathway to survive," said Spagnuolo in a press release, explaining that the compound is a likely candidate for drug therapy. He added, "This is the first time VLCAD has been identified as a target in any cancer."

AML is generally a disease of older people, being the average age of these patients about 66 years. Nearly half of them enter palliative care while others undergo chemotherapy. However, the complications of chemotherapy are toxic and life-threatening.

"There's been a drive to find less toxic drugs that can be used", said Spagnuolo.

Avocatin B is a fat molecule found only in avocados. Referring to earlier work using avocatin B for diabetes, Spagnuolo said, "We completed a human study with this as an oral supplement and have been able to show that appreciable amounts are fairly well tolerated."

The authors concluded, "Together, these results demonstrate the importance of VLCAD in AML cell biology and highlight a novel metabolic vulnerability for this devastating disease."

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DOI:https://doi.org/10.1182/blood.2020008551