Venetoclax efficacy on acute myeloid leukemia is enhanced by the combination with butyrate

Abstract Venetoclax has been approved recently for treatment of Acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Venetoclax is a BH3-mimetic and induces apoptosis via Bcl-2 inhibition. However, venetoclax’s effect is still restrictive and a novel strategy is needed. In the present study, we demonstrate that sodium butyrate (NaB) facilitates the venetoclax’s efficacy of cell death in AML cells. As a single agent, NaB or venetoclax exerted just a weak effect on cell death induction for AML cell line KG-1. The combination with NaB and venetoclax drastically induced cell death. NaB upregulated pro-apoptotic factors, Bax and Bak, indicating the synergistic effect by the collaboration with Bcl-2 inhibition by venetoclax. The combined treatment with NaB and venetoclax strongly cleaved a caspase substrate poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) and a potent pan-caspase inhibitor Q-VD-OPh almost completely blocked the cell death induced by the combination, meaning that the combination mainly induced apoptosis. The combination with NaB and venetoclax also strongly induced cell death in another AML cell line SKNO-1 but did not affect chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) cell line K562, indicating that the effect was specific for AML cells. Our results provide a novel strategy to strengthen the effect of venetoclax for AML treatment.