Membrane vesicles prepared from cells expressing the multidrug resistance-associated protein (MRP) transport glutathione S-conjugates of hydrophobic substrates in an ATP dependent manner. Purified MRP possesses ATPase activity which can be further stimulated by anticancer drugs or leukotriene C4. However, the detailed relationship between ATP hydrolysis and drug transport has not been established. How the ATPase activity of MRP is regulated in the cell is also not known. In this report, we have examined the effects of different nucleotides on the ATPase activity of purified MRP. We have found that pyrimidine nucleoside triphosphates have little effect on enzymatic activity. In contrast, purine nucleotides dATP, dGTP, and adenosine 5-(,␥-imido)triphosphate function as competitive inhibitors. Somewhat unexpectedly, low concentrations of all the nucleoside diphosphates (NDPs) tested, except UDP, stimulate the ATPase activity severalfold. ADP or GDP at higher concentrations was inhibitory, reflecting NDP binding to the substrate site. On the other hand, the enhancement of hydrolysis at low NDP concentrations must reflect interactions with a separate site. Therefore, we postulate the presence of at least two types of nucleotide binding sites on the MRP, a catalytic site(s) to which ATP preferentially binds and is hydrolyzed and a regulatory site to which NDPs preferentially bind and stimulate hydrolysis. Interestingly, the stimulatory effects of drugs transported by MRP and NDPs are not additive, i.e. drugs are not able to further stimulate the NDP-activated enzyme. Hence, the two activation pathways intersect at some point. Since both nucleotide binding domains of MRP are likely to be required for drug stimulation of ATPase activity, the two sites that we postulate may also involve both domains.The multidrug resistance-associated protein (MRP) 1 gene was cloned from a multidrug-resistant cell line, H69AR, which was obtained by stepwise selection in increasing concentration of doxorubicin (1). A single open reading frame of 1531 amino acids was defined, and the protein was found to be a member of the ABC superfamily of transport systems (1) and to contain three membrane-associated domains and two nucleotide binding domains (2). As predicted, cells transfected with MRP cDNA become multidrug-resistant (3-10). Mutations of lysine residues in the Walker A motif of the first and second nucleotide binding domains of MRP decreased drug resistance levels compared with wild-type MRP (5), implying that MRP functions as an ATP-dependent drug pump. Its function has been studied widely using membrane vesicles prepared from MRP-expressing cells (11-23). It was found that anticancer drugs, such as vincristine, cannot be transported by MRP, unless glutathione is also present (13). Several natural substrates, such as the glutathione S-conjugate, LTC4 (11-13, 16, 20) and other conjugates including glutathione S-conjugated prostaglandin A1 and A2 (23), 17--estradiol 17--D-glucuronide (14), bile salt, and glucuronosylhyodeoxycholate...