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Polyoxypregnanes as safe, potent, and specific ABCB1-inhibitory pro-drugs to overcome multidrug resistance in cancer chemotherapy in vitro and in vivo

Authors :
Xu Wu
Chun Yin
Jiang Ma
Stella Chai
Chunyuan Zhang
Sheng Yao
Onat Kadioglu
Thomas Efferth
Yang Ye
Kenneth Kin-Wah To
Ge Lin
Source :
Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B, Vol 11, Iss 7, Pp 1885-1902 (2021)
Publication Year :
2021
Publisher :
Elsevier, 2021.

Abstract

Multidrug resistance (MDR) mediated by ATP binding cassette subfamily B member 1 (ABCB1) is significantly hindering effective cancer chemotherapy. However, currently, no ABCB1-inhibitory drugs have been approved to treat MDR cancer clinically, mainly due to the inhibitor specificity, toxicity, and drug interactions. Here, we reported that three polyoxypregnanes (POPs) as the most abundant constituents of Marsdenia tenacissima (M. tenacissima) were novel ABCB1-modulatory pro-drugs, which underwent intestinal microbiota-mediated biotransformation in vivo to generate active metabolites. The metabolites at non-toxic concentrations restored chemosensitivity in ABCB1-overexpressing cancer cells via inhibiting ABCB1 efflux activity without changing ABCB1 protein expression, which were further identified as specific non-competitive inhibitors of ABCB1 showing multiple binding sites within ABCB1 drug cavity. These POPs did not exhibit ABCB1/drug metabolizing enzymes interplay, and their repeated administration generated predictable pharmacokinetic interaction with paclitaxel without obvious toxicity in vivo. We further showed that these POPs enhanced the accumulation of paclitaxel in tumors and overcame ABCB1-mediated chemoresistance. The results suggested that these POPs had the potential to be developed as safe, potent, and specific pro-drugs to reverse ABCB1-mediated MDR. Our work also provided scientific evidence for the use of M. tenacissima in combinational chemotherapy.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
22113835 and 42389925
Volume :
11
Issue :
7
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.5f23428dd85e423899251c55eb3bb20f
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsb.2020.12.021