No abstract

Multidrug resistance in acute myeloid leukemia is often conferred by overexpression of P-glycoprotein, encoded by the MDR1 gene. We have characterized the key regulatory steps in the development of multidrug resistance in K562 myelogenous leukemic cells. Unexpectedly, up-regulation of MDR1 levels was not due to transcriptional activation but was achieved at two distinct posttranscriptional steps, mRNA turnover and translational regulation. The short-lived (half-life 1 h) MDR1 mRNA of naïve cells (not exposed to drugs) was stabilized (halflife greater than 10 h) following short-term drug exposure. However, this stabilized mRNA was not associated with translating polyribosomes and did not direct Pglycoprotein synthesis. Selection for drug resistance, by long-term exposure to drug, led to resistant lines in which the translational block was overcome such that the stabilized mRNA was translated and P-glycoprotein expressed. The absence of a correlation between steadystate MDR1 mRNA and P-glycoprotein levels was not restricted to K562 cells but was found in other lymphoid cell lines. These findings have implications for the avoidance or reversal of multidrug resistance in the clinic. MDR1 is the most common impediment to successful chemotherapy for a variety of cancers (1). The most frequent form of drug resistance in relapsed acute leukemia is overexpression of P-glycoprotein (2, 3). P-glycoprotein is a member of the ATPbinding cassette superfamily of active transporters and functions as an energy-dependent efflux pump that reduces the intracellular concentration of cytotoxic compounds and, hence, their toxicity. P-glycoprotein has a broad substrate specificity and can confer resistance to a wide range of different cytotoxic compounds (4).Most pre-clinical and clinical efforts to overcome MDR aim to modulate P-glycoprotein activity. However, clinical trials of compounds that inhibit P-glycoprotein activity have had limited success and led to adverse pharmacokinetic side effects (1). It may, therefore, be more appropriate to target MDR1 expression. Indeed, MDR1 transcription has been targeted with Ecteinascidin 743 in pre-clinical studies (5) and more recently by modulation of the nuclear receptor SXR (6). Strategies involving antisense and transcriptional decoy (7) and the use of anti-MDR1 mRNA hammerhead ribozymes have also been suggested (8).Stresses such as short-term exposure to cytotoxic drugs results in the up-regulation of MDR1 mRNA levels in many cell lines (9 -13) and in human metastatic sarcomas in vivo (14). This is frequently due to transcriptional activation of the MDR1 gene and has been reported in many cell lines after different physical and chemical stimulations and in cells selected for resistance to a variety of cytotoxic drugs (5,9,10,15,16). In cell lines selected for drug resistance, increased MDR1 gene expression is also the result of amplification of the MDR1 locus and the appearance of self-replicating episomes (4). Gene rearrangements that constitutively activate MDR1 transcription have also...

The assembly of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins requires the formation in the endoplasmic reticulum of a complex between apolipoprotein B (apoB), a microsomal triglyceride transfer protein (MTP), and protein disulfide isomerase (PDI). In the MTP complex, the aminoterminal region of MTP (residues 22-303) interacts with the amino-terminal region of apoB (residues 1-264). Here, we report the identification and characterization of a site on apoB between residues 512 and 721, which interacts with residues 517-603 of MTP. PDI binds in close proximity to this apoB binding site on MTP. The proximity of these binding sites on MTP for PDI and amino acids 512-721 of apoB was evident from studies carried out in a yeast two-hybrid system and by coimmunoprecipitation. The expression of PDI with MTP and apoB16 (residues 1-721) in the baculovirus expression system reduced the amount of MTP co-immunoprecipitated with apoB by 73%. The interaction of residues 512-721 of apoB with MTP facilitates lipoprotein production. Mutations of apoB that markedly reduced this interaction also reduced the level of apoB-containing lipoprotein secretion.

Apolipoprotein (apo) B100 is required for the distribution of hepatic triglyceride to peripheral tissues as very-low-density lipoproteins. The translocation of apo B100 into the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and its subsequent assembly into lipoprotein particles is of particular interest as the protein is both very large (relative molecular mass 512,000) and insoluble in water. It has been proposed that apo B translocation occurs in discrete stages and is completed post-translationally. Several sites of arrest of translocation were reported to be present in apo B15 (the N-terminal 15% of the protein). We have re-examined this question by in vitro translation coupled with translocation into microsomes, and find no evidence for transmembrane segments in truncated apo B proteins. Translocated apo B17 is strongly associated with the membrane of the ER, being only partially releasable with alkaline carbonate, and remaining bound to the microsomes following disruption with saponin. The efficient binding of short segments of apo B, despite the absence of transmembrane domains, suggests that apo B is cotranslationally inserted into the inner leaflet of the ER. This will obviate problems caused by the size and insolubility of apo B100, because the growing hydrophobic protein chains will never exist in a lipid-free form during translocation. From the inner leaflet, apo B in association with membrane-derived lipid can bud into the lumen of the ER to form nascent lipoprotein particles.