The novel small molecule CBL0137 (curaxin) exhibits antileukemic activity

Curaxin CBL0137 is a new promising antitumor drug, which was selected as NfkB-signaling inhibitor and p53 activator in different cancer cell lines. To investigate whether Curaxin may be applied for acute leukemia therapy, we used three models: human leukemia cell lines, blood samples of leukemia patients and murine leukemia models in vivo. CBL0137 decreased leukemic cells viability, reduced expression of WNT target genes in vitro and ex vivo and demonstrated antileukemic activity in vivo.