The intrinsic or acquired resistance to anticancer drugs remains one of the most significant factors impeding the progress of cancer chemotherapy. This phenomenon often involves simultaneous resistance to other anticancer drugs that differ in their chemical structure and mode of action and are not even used in chemotherapy. This phenotype has been called multidrug resistance (MDR). Although the cellular basis underlying MDR is not fully understood, several factors mediating therapy resistance in tumors have been proposed. One of the mechanisms leading to chemoresistance of tumor cells is the increased activity of transporter proteins. The best-characterized transporter protein is MDR1/P-glycoprotein, and a number of clinical investigations have suggested that its intrinsic or acquired overexpression resulted in a poor clinical outcome of chemotherapy. Various types of compounds and techniques for the reversal of MDR1/P-glycoprotein-mediated MDR have been developed, and efforts have concentrated on the inhibition of function and suppression of expression. This review summarizes the current state of knowledge of MDR1/P-glycoprotein and the modulation of MDR by targeting MDR1/P-glycoprotein.

Chemoresistance is a common mode of therapy failure for many cancers. Tumours develop resistance to chemotherapeutics through a variety of mechanisms, with proteins serving pivotal roles. Changes in protein conformations and interactions affect the cellular response to environmental conditions contributing to the development of new phenotypes. The ability to understand how protein interaction networks adapt to yield new function or alter phenotype is limited by the inability to determine structural and protein interaction changes on a proteomic scale. Here, chemical crosslinking and mass spectrometry were employed to quantify changes in protein structures and interactions in multidrug-resistant human carcinoma cells. Quantitative analysis of the largest crosslinking-derived, protein interaction network comprising 1,391 crosslinked peptides allows for 'edgotype' analysis in a cell model of chemoresistance. We detect consistent changes to protein interactions and structures, including those involving cytokeratins, topoisomerase-2-alpha, and post-translationally modified histones, which correlate with a chemoresistant phenotype.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract