Mechanism of a Medication for Chronic Myeloid Leukemia

This animation shows how the cancer treatment Gleevec inhibits the cancer-causing protein BCR-ABL.

Gleevec is a drug for treating chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), a cancer of white blood cells. In CML, white blood cells divide uncontrollably due to an overactive mutant tyrosine kinase protein called BCR-ABL. Gleevec is designed to specifically bind to and inactivate BCR-ABL, which prevents it from signaling the division of more white blood cells.

This animation is a clip from a 2013 Holiday Lecture Series, Medicine in the Genomic Era. Depending on students’ background, it may be helpful to pause the animation at various points to discuss different molecules and their structures.