P-glycoprotein (P-gp)-mediated multidrug resistance (MDR) is a principal obstacle for successful cancer chemotherapy. A novel P-gp inhibitor with a quinazoline scaffold, 12k, was considered to be the most promising for in-depth study. 12k possessed high potency (EC = 57.9 ± 3.5 nM), low cytotoxicity, and long duration of activity in reversing doxorubicin (DOX) resistance in K562/A02 cells. 12k also boosted the potency of other MDR-related cytotoxic agents with different structures, increased accumulation of DOX, blocked P-gp-mediated Rh123 efflux, and suppressed P-gp ATPase activity in K562/A02 MDR cells. However, 12k did not have any effects on CYP3A4 activity or P-gp expression. In particular, 12k had a good half-life and oral bioavailability and displayed no influence on DOX metabolism to obviate the side effects closely related to increased plasma concentrations of cytotoxic agents in vivo.
Multidrug resistance (MDR) is still the main barrier to attaining effective results with chemotherapy. Discovery of new chemo-reversal agents is needed to overcome MDR. Our study focused on a better way to obtain novel drugs with triazole rings that have an MDR reversal ability through click chemistry. Among 20 developed compounds, compound 19 had a minimal cytotoxic effect compared to tariquidar and verapamil (VRP) and showed a higher reversal activity than VRP through increased accumulation in K562/A02 cells. Compound 19 also played an important role in the P-gp efflux function of intracellular Rh123 and doxorubicin (DOX) accumulation in K562/A02 cells. Moreover, compound 19 exhibited a long lifetime of approximately 24 hr. These results indicated that compound 19 is a potential lead compound for the design of new drugs to overcome cancer MDR.
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