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Let f: {0, 1}n → {0, 1} be a boolean function, and let f∧(x, y) = f(x ∧ y) denote the AND-function of f, where x ∧ y denotes bit-wise AND. We study the deterministic communication complexity of f∧ and show that, up to a logn factor, it is bounded by a polynomial in the logarithm of the real rank of the communication matrix of f∧. This comes within a logn factor of establishing the log-rank conjecture for AND-functions with no assumptions on f. Our result stands in contrast with previous results on special cases of the log-rank conjecture, which needed significant restrictions on f such as monotonicity or low F2-degree. Our techniques can also be used to prove (within a logn factor) a lifting theorem for AND-functions, stating that the deterministic communication complexity of f∧ is polynomially related to the AND-decision tree complexity of f. The results rely on a new structural result regarding boolean functions f: {0, 1}n → {0, 1} with a sparse polynomial representation, which may be of independent interest. We show that if the polynomial computing f has few monomials then the set system of the monomials has a small hitting set, of size poly-logarithmic in its sparsity. We also establish extensions of this result to multi-linear polynomials f: {0, 1}n → with a larger range.