Plerixafor inhibits chemotaxis toward SDF-1 and CXCR4-mediated stroma contact in a dose-dependent manner resulting in increased susceptibility of BCR-ABL+ cell to Imatinib and Nilotinib.

Despite Imatinib's remarkable success in chronic myelogenous leukemia treatment, monotherapy frequently causes resistance, underlining the rationale for combination chemotherapy. A potential approach would be interrupting the SDF-1/CXCR4 axis using the selective CXCR4 antagonist Plerixafor (previously AMD3100), as this axis has been reported to provide survival-enhancing effects to myeloid progenitor cells. By efficient CXCR4 blocking in the CXCR4(+)/BCR-ABL(+) cell line BV-173, plerixafor (1-100 muM) significantly inhibits SDF-1alpha-mediated chemotaxis and cell migration toward the murine stroma cell line FBMD-1.