M. D. Anderson Steps Up Research with A-T Mice
January 2000

Bolstered by new discoveries presented at last winter’s Roundtable Conference, researchers at M. D. Anderson have greatly intensified their research at Science Park. Based on these discoveries and their commitment to continue their studies, The A-T Project has pledged $50,000 in the coming year to support the work being done. These funds will provide the support necessary to produce preliminary data that will be used to submit grant applications to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The M. D. Anderson team, led by Bill Lynn, M.D. and Paul Wong, Ph.D., is experimenting with A-T mouse models to determine possible bioactive interventions that might be effective in by-passing the A-T genetic defect. Drs. Lynn and Wong, with the assistance of Wenan Qiang, M.D., Mingshan Yan, Ph.D. and Na Liu, M.D., have made some positive discoveries and have undertaken an aggressive mouse-breeding program to produce enough mice to follow through with their initial findings. In the meantime they are continuing to work with small groups of A-T mice and their cells to identify potential treatments that can be tried upon a larger set of mice. In addition, the M.D. Anderson team is using a genetically engineered retrovirus, Ts1, designed by Dr. Wong, which produces many symptoms of A-T. They have also received assistance from Dr. Peter McKinnon of St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital in Memphis who has supplied them with another strain of A-T mouse. (A-T mice are particularly hard to breed because mice with full-blown A-T do not reproduce. Only carriers of a defective A-T gene can produce A-T mice and those odds are one in four.)

The mouse model for A-T has disappointed some researchers because the mice usually die of cancer before neurological symptoms appear. The Florida-based A-T foundation is even pursuing a primate model of A-T in hopes that the neurological symptoms will show more clearly. M. D. Anderson researchers and others are using the mouse model for three reasons:

a. The mechanisms causing cancer and neuro-degeneration in humans may be similar to the mechanisms that cause only cancer in mice.

c. Exciting new preliminary findings at Texas A&M University indicate that through the use of state-of-the-art detection techniques, there may be measurable signs of premature neuro-degeneration in A-T mice.