ABT-737 dosage and evidence
Written by Aaron CuhaReviewed Sep 2026
The short answer
ABT-737 is the lab parent of navitoclax, used in mice to clear worn-out cells. Nobody has ever been given ABT-737 in a published study. It does not get absorbed when swallowed, so a pill version, navitoclax, was made and tested in people instead.
Evidence grade for ABT-737: Preliminary. The rule: studied in people, but no published study has had people take it. The sum on this page: 1 human study where nobody was given it. A grade counts how much has been done to people, not whether it works.
- People given it
- 0
- Human studies
- 0
- Found nothing
- 0
Dose
No human dose established
No published study on this page has given this compound to people and reported a result.
1 human study where nobody was given it
1 effects reported, 1 unwanted, by people using it, not a trial
Goal pages: Ageing and longevity, Immune system and inflammation
In plain English
In plain English, from Aaron
This is how I would explain it to a friend. The evidence, with the numbers, is further down the page.
ABT-737 is a lab chemical used to kill worn-out cells in mice. It does not get absorbed when you swallow it, so it never became a medicine. Its pill version is navitoclax. It is not approved for anything.
What people take it for
- Clearing worn-out cells.
- Slowing ageing, based on mouse studies.
What studies in people showed
Nobody has ever been given ABT-737 in a published study. The only data in people for this drug family come from navitoclax. In its first study, platelets dropped to dangerous levels in 29 of 55 cancer patients. In mice, ABT-737 or drugs like it prevented type 1 diabetes, cut worn-out brain immune cells in an Alzheimer model, and shrank lung tumours.
What people report
Reports, not study results
The good
- We have not collected user reports on this one yet.
The bad
- Its close relative, navitoclax, crashed platelets in 29 of 55 cancer patients. The same would likely happen with this one.
Where these come from: The platelet result is from the navitoclax study on this page. We have no forum reports for this one.
My bottom line
It is a lab tool, not a medicine. Nobody has tested it in a single person. Leave it in the lab.
An opinion, not a finding. I am a coach, not a doctor.
What it has been measured to do
Animal and lab work, not yet tested in people
Real results, but from animals or cells, not people. What works in a mouse often does not work the same way in a person. Nobody can patent this, so nobody would ever earn back the cost of a study in people. That is usually why there is none. The record on this one is set out below.
- Living longer1 animal or lab study
- Cancer and tumours1 animal or lab study
34 of the 36 indexed goals have no study of any kind behind ABT-737
No study in people, animals or cells on this page reports a result for these. That does not prove ABT-737 does nothing for them. It does mean anything you have heard about ABT-737 and one of these did not come from a study cited here.
Show full evidence
What is ABT-737?
ABT-737 is the lab parent of navitoclax, used in mice to clear worn-out cells. Nobody has ever been given ABT-737 in a published study. It does not get absorbed when swallowed, so a pill version, navitoclax, was made and tested in people instead.
ABT-737 blocks three proteins that keep cells alive: BCL-2, BCL-xL and BCL-w. Cells that lean on them die. It is the parent of navitoclax, which cancer researchers call the pill version of ABT-737. ABT-737 itself is barely absorbed when swallowed, so it has stayed a lab tool.
Nobody has been given ABT-737 in a published study, and no study is registered. The only data in people for this drug family come from navitoclax. Its first study showed that blocking BCL-xL makes platelets, the blood cells that stop bleeding, drop to dangerous levels. That limited the dose.
In research, it is the tool used to show that killing worn-out cells changes disease in mice. In mice bred to get type 1 diabetes, some insulin-making cells wore out and leaned on BCL-2. Drugs that block BCL-2 killed those cells, stopped the immune attack on insulin-making cells, and prevented diabetes. In a mouse model of Alzheimer disease, ABT-737 cut a group of worn-out brain immune cells. In mice with a type of lung cancer, clearing worn-out immune cells shrank tumours and helped the mice live longer.
No clean-up drug has improved health in a proper study in people, and ABT-737 has never been given to a person at all.
How does ABT-737 work?
Shown in cells and in mice: ABT-737 sits in a pocket on BCL-2, BCL-xL and BCL-w. That frees other proteins that tell the cell to die. In mice, worn-out cells lean on those three proteins to survive, which is why the drug hits them hardest in animal studies. None of this has been checked in a person, because nobody has been given it in a published study.
What have studies in people found about ABT-737?
None. No published study has given ABT-737 to a person, and no study is registered. The data in people for this drug family belong to navitoclax, its pill version.
What this does not tell you: Because nobody has taken ABT-737, nothing is known about how it moves through the human body, what dose people can take, or whether it would target worn-out cells in people the way it does in mice. The navitoclax results suggest the problem would be the same one: platelets need BCL-xL to survive.
The state of the research
ABT-737 is best seen as a lab tool that produced important mouse biology, not as a drug. It is barely absorbed when swallowed, which is exactly why Abbott made navitoclax. Navitoclax is where the data in people, and the harm in people, live. Papers that call ABT-737 a clean-up drug are describing what it does in mouse tissue and in cells in a dish.
The practical lesson: when you read a headline about worn-out cells being cleared in Alzheimer or diabetes models, check which drug was used and in which animal. In all three studies above, it was a mouse.
The evidence, in charts
Fig. 1a · how many people
55people, across 1 study in people cited here
| Study | People | Share |
|---|---|---|
| The Lancet Oncology 2010 | 55 | 100% |
The whole total is one study of 55. Counts are the number of people each study on this page says it signed up. That includes studies that only watched people and gave nobody the compound. 1 more study in people gives no headcount and is not counted here. Studies still signing people up are left out, and only studies cited on this page are counted.
Fig. 1b · evidence mix
2 of 5 sources here are studies in people. The rest are not.
- Study in people · done in people240%
- Animal study · done in animals360%
Counted from the list of sources on this page. It counts only what we cite, so there may be more studies out there. A review counts once, however many studies it sums up.
Fig. 2 · evidence over time
The studies cover 5 different years, 2010 to 2024, counted from the list of sources on this page.
Fig. 3 · legal status at a glance
US
Not approved
UK
Not approved
AU
Not approved
CA
Not approved
Not approved in any of the four countries shown. This is what the law says, not a verdict on the science. See Legal status below for the full text and any notes.
Fig. 4 · how much does what
Nobody has tested different amounts in people
This chart would show how the effect changes as the amount goes up. For this compound, nobody has measured that in people. So we leave it empty. We will not borrow an animal chart and pretend it works the same in people.
Fig. 5 · what the molecule is
- Kind of compound
- Small molecule
- Molecule weight
- Not on file
- Half-life
- None on file
- Chain length
- None on file
No amino acid sequence is on file for ABT-737, which is expected: a small molecule is not built from amino acids.
The studies we cite
- Study in people2010Navitoclax, a targeted high-affinity inhibitor of BCL-2, in lymphoid malignancies: a phase 1 dose-escalation study
Nobody has ever given ABT-737 to a person. The only data in people in this drug family is for navitoclax, the pill version made from it. In that study, 55 adults with lymph node cancer took the pill, and in 29 their platelets, the blood cells that stop bleeding, dropped to dangerous levels. The cause was the same protein block that makes the drug work. Read this as proof about the drug family, not ABT-737. Abbott, Genentech and the US National Cancer Institute paid for it.
The only human data in this drug class, and it is about the oral analogue, not ABT-737. 55 adults with lymphoid malignancy; grade 3 or 4 thrombocytopenia in 29, attributed by the authors to high-affinity BCL-xL inhibition. Funded by Abbott Laboratories, Genentech and the National Cancer Institute.
- Study in people2022A phase II study of Navitoclax (ABT-263) as single agent in women heavily pretreated for recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer
This paper is here for one line in it: navitoclax is the pill version of ABT-737. That links a lab tool to a drug people have actually taken. The study gave navitoclax to 46 women with advanced ovarian cancer. Half had growing cancer again within about seven weeks. In 12 of the 46, platelets dropped to dangerous levels. None of it tested ABT-737.
The source that states the relationship directly: navitoclax is described as the orally available ABT-737 analogue. 46 women, median progression-free survival 1.64 months, grade 3 or 4 thrombocytopenia in 12 of 46.
This study gave people navitoclax, not ABT-737. It is here because it belongs on the record, and it is excluded from every count on this page.
- Animal study2019Targeted Elimination of Senescent Beta Cells Prevents Type 1 Diabetes
In mice bred to get type 1 diabetes. Some insulin-making cells wore out and leaned on a protein called BCL-2. Drugs that block BCL-2 killed those cells, stopped the immune attack on insulin-making cells and prevented diabetes. The researchers also looked at human pancreas tissue, but only to describe it. The disease prevention was in mice.
Mouse (non-obese diabetic model), with descriptive human pancreas observations. Senescent beta cells upregulated BCL-2; treating the mice with BCL-2 inhibitors selectively eliminated those cells, halted immune-mediated beta cell destruction and prevented diabetes. The disease prevention is a mouse result.
- Animal study2024Identification of senescent, TREM2-expressing microglia in aging and Alzheimer's disease model mouse brain
In mice. In a mouse model of Alzheimer disease, ABT-737 cut a group of worn-out brain immune cells, without wiping out the other immune cells linked to the disease.
Mouse. In the 5xFAD amyloidosis model, treatment with the senolytic BCL-2 family inhibitor ABT-737 reduced senescent microglia without depleting the disease-associated microglia population.
- Animal study2023Clearance of senescent macrophages ameliorates tumorigenesis in KRAS-driven lung cancer
In mice. Clearing worn-out cells, with genes or a clean-up drug, or removing a type of immune cell, shrank tumours and helped mice with a type of lung cancer live longer. Worn-out immune cells were also seen in human lung tissue before cancer, but that was only an observation, not a treatment.
Mouse. Genetic or senolytic ablation of senescent cells, or macrophage depletion, reduced tumour burden and increased survival in KRAS-driven lung cancer models. Macrophages with senescent features were also found in human pre-malignant lung lesions, an observation rather than an intervention.
Common questions
Has ABT-737 been tested in people?
Not in a completed trial cited here. 1 human study where nobody was given it. ABT-737 is the lab parent of navitoclax, used in mice to clear worn-out cells. Nobody has ever been given ABT-737 in a published study. It does not get absorbed when swallowed, so a pill version, navitoclax, was made and tested in people instead.
What is the ABT-737 dosage?
No human dose established. No published study on this page has given this compound to people and reported a result. 1 human study where nobody was given it
Is ABT-737 FDA-approved?
Not approved, and not being developed for people. Animal or lab only, with no registered human study. Its close cousin in pill form, navitoclax, reached early safety studies and mid-stage studies in cancer, and is also unapproved.
Has ABT-737 ever been given to a person?
Not in any published study, and no study of it is registered. Its pill version, navitoclax, has been given to people, but only in cancer studies.
What is the difference between ABT-737 and navitoclax?
Navitoclax is the pill version of ABT-737. It was made because ABT-737 is not absorbed well enough when swallowed to be a practical drug. They block the same three proteins, BCL-2, BCL-xL and BCL-w.
What has ABT-737 shown in animals?
In mice bred to get type 1 diabetes, it prevented diabetes by killing worn-out insulin-making cells. In a mouse model of Alzheimer disease, it cut worn-out brain immune cells. In mice with a type of lung cancer, clearing worn-out cells shrank tumours and helped them live longer. All in mice.