We previously reported that Antp-TPR hybrid peptide inhibited the interaction of Hsp90 with TPR2A and had selective cytotoxic activity discriminating between normal and cancer cells to induce cancer cell death. In this study, we investigated the cytotoxic activity of Antp-TPR peptide toward acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells. It was demonstrated that Antp-TPR peptide induced AML cell death in cell lines such as U937, K562, THP-1, and HL-60 via activation of caspases 3 and 7, and disruption of mitochondrial membrane potential. Conversely, Antp-TPR peptide did not reduce the viability of normal cells including peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), although both geldanamycin and 17-AAG, small-molecule inhibitors of Hsp90, mediated cytotoxicity to these normal cells at low concentrations. In addition, mutation analysis of TPR peptide demonstrated that the highly conserved amino acids Lys and Arg were critical to the cytotoxic activity. These results indicated that Antp-TPR hybrid peptide would provide potent and selective therapeutic options in the treatment of AML. (C) 2012, The Society for Biotechnology, Japan. All rights reserved.