By improving their understanding of graft vs. host disease, Ohio State researchers are working toward better treatment for the transplant complication. Graft vs. host disease (GvHD) is an often-fatal issue that sometimes arises in patients who receive allogenic stem cell or bone marrow transplants. The complication occurs when T-cells recognize the new tissues as foreign and then attack them. To better protect patients, OSUCCC – James researchers are currently studying graft vs. host disease in leukemia and lymphoma patients, along with a therapy that could address not only the complication but the underlying cancers as well. “We found out that an enzyme was unregulated both in leukemias and lymphomas — the conditions for which a patient receives a bone marrow transplant — and there was also emerging research that showed that this enzyme was unregulated in T-cells,” Parvathi Ranganathan, PhD, says. “It seemed like the perfect opportunity to try and see if we could inhibit the activity of this enzyme — a double-edged-sword strategy that could effectively eliminate the cancer cells and prevent graft versus host disease at the same time.”