Background:

ABT-737 is a novel and potent inhibitor of B-cell lymphoma 2 (BCL-2) family proteins, which are critical for cell survival and overexpressed in many tumor cells, with high affinity towards BCL-X_L, BCL-2, and BCL-w but no affinity towards less homologous proteins, such as BCL-B, MCL-1, and A1. ABT-737 has shown single-agent activity against lymphoma and small-cell lung cancer as well as substantial antimyeloma activity bothin vitroandin vivo. In recent studies, acute myeloid leukemia blast, origenitor, and stem cells are effectively killed by ABT-737 with normal hematopoietic cells intact. The disruption of the BCL-2/BAX complex and BAK-dependent but BIM-independent activation of the intrinsic apoptotic pathway could also be induced by ABT-737.

Reference

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