Homoharringtonine is synergistically lethal with BCL-2 inhibitor APG-2575 in acute myeloid leukemia

BACKGROUND: Despite advances in targeted agent development, effective treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) remains a major clinical challenge. The B-cell lymphoma-2 (BCL-2) inhibitor exhibited promising clinical activity in AML, acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) treatment. APG-2575 is a novel BCL-2 selective inhibitor, which has demonstrated anti-tumor activity in hematologic malignancies. Homoharringtonine (HHT), an alkaloid, exhibited anti-AML activity. METHODS: The synergistic effects of APG-2575 and HHT were studied in AML cell lines and primary samples. MTS was used to measure the cell viability. Annexin V/propidium iodide staining was used to measure the apoptosis rate by flow cytometry. AML cell xenografted mouse models were established to evaluate the anti-leukemic effect of BCL-2 inhibitor, HHT and their combination in vivo. Western blot was used to determine the expression of related proteins. RESULTS: APG-2575 showed comparable anti-leukemic effect to the FDA-approved BCL-2 inhibitor ABT-199 in vitro and in vivo. Combined treatment of HHT with APG-2575 synergistically inhibited AML cell growth and engraftment. Mechanistically, HHT promoted degradation of myeloid cell leukemia-1 (MCL-1), which was reported to induce BCL-2 inhibitor resistant, through the PI3K/AKT/GSK3β signaling pathway. CONCLUSION: Our results provide an effective AML treatment strategy through combination of APG-2575 and HHT, which is worthy of further clinical research. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12967-022-03497-2.