The V Foundation for Cancer Research has awarded a $600,000 grant to Tae Kon Kim, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Medicine, to delve into the mechanisms of LAIR-1, a protein found at high levels in the bone marrow of patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), and to investigate potential therapies for the blood cancer.
MDS occurs when bone marrow is unable to make enough healthy blood cells, putting patients at risk for developing a more aggressive cancer, acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Other than stem cell transplants, treatments for MDS are limited and not effective for all patients, leaving them with no other options. Immunotherapies, such as immune checkpoint inhibitors that utilize the PD-L1 pathway to spur the immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells, have been successfully applied to other cancers, but not MDS. Kim has proposed that LAIR-1 could be such a pathway for MDS.
Using mice transplanted with human MDS cells, Kim and colleagues at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center will study whether this protein hinders the ability of the immune system to fight MDS and whether it can be blocked to treat MDS. The aim of the study is to understand how MDS avoids the immune system and to find new treatments to enhance the immune response.
Kim’s laboratory at Vanderbilt-Ingram is focused on overcoming immune evasion in leukemia, including investigations to find novel co-inhibitory molecules besides PD-L1 for treatment options. He is a senior author of a study published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation in 2023 that showed the LAIR-1 pathway could be targeted with an antibody to induce death of residual leukemic stem cells in bone marrow after AML treatment that are responsible for relapses and drug resistance. With the support from the V Foundation, he will now explore whether the LAIR-1 pathway can be used as a treatment target for MDS before it develops into AML.
Kim is one of 21 V Scholars in the adult cancer category for 2024 selected by V Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Committee through a highly competitive process. The grant will support his research over three years. Since awarding its first grant in 1994, the V Foundation has funded over $353 million in research grants. The V Foundation for Cancer Research was founded by ESPN and NCAA basketball coach Jim Valvano with one goal in mind: to achieve Victory Over Cancer.
