Leukaemia cells, with blood-forming cells spared

In leukaemia cell lines the peptide caused necrosis in proportion to how much HDM-2 the cells displayed in their membranes, and normal blood-forming cells, which do not display it, were not killed. That contrast is the sharpest demonstration of the targeting idea, because blood-forming cells are exactly what conventional chemotherapy damages most. The effect tracked membrane HDM-2 rather than the cell's p53 status.