Identification of new P-glycoprotein inhibitors derived from cardiotonic steroids
P-glycoprotein (ABCB1, MDR1) is capable of extruding chemotherapeutics outside the cell and its overexpression in certain cancer cells may cause failure of chemotherapy. Many attempts were carried out to identify potent inhibitors of this transporter and numerous compounds were shown to exert inhibitory effects in vitro, but so far none were able to make their way to the clinic due to serious complications. Natural compounds represent a great source of therapeutics, which are believed to be safe and effective. Therefore, we have screened a large library of naturally occurring cardiotonic steroids and their derivatives using high throughput flow cytometry. We were able to identify six compou…
Cytotoxicity of cardiotonic steroids in sensitive and multidrug-resistant leukemia cells and the link with Na(+)/K(+)-ATPase.
Cardiotonic steroids have long been in clinical use for treatment of heart failure and are now emerging as promising agents in various diseases, especially cancer. Their main target is Na(+)/K(+)-ATPase, a membrane protein involved in cellular ion homeostasis. Na(+)/K(+)-ATPase has been implicated in cancer biology by affecting several cellular events and signaling pathways in both sensitive and drug-resistant cancer cells. Hence, we investigated the cytotoxic activities of 66 cardiotonic steroids and cardiotonic steroid derivatives in sensitive CCRF-CEM and multidrug-resistant CEM/ADR5000 leukemia cells. Data were then subjected to quantitative structure-activity relationship analysis (QSA…