Complete reversal by thaliblastine of 490-fold adriamycin resistance in multidrug-resistant (MDR) human breast cancer cells. Evidence that multiple biochemical changes in MDR cells need not correspond to multiple functional determinants for drug resistance.

The emergence of drug resistance is a major obstacle to effective cancer chemotherapy. The identification of novel agents that serve as selective, potent and nontoxic modulators of drug resistance is thus an important goal for improving the success of cancer treatment. Thaliblastine (TBL), a plant alkaloid and P-glycoprotein (P-gp) inhibitor, is presently shown to fully reverse 490-fold resistance to Adriamycin (AdR) in a multidrug-resistant (MDR) human breast cancer cell line (MCF/AdR) that overexpresses P-gp, whereas the same treatment had no effect on AdR cytotoxicity in the drug-sensitive parental MCF-7 cells. Mechanistic studies showed that this striking resistance reversal was achieved without alteration of cellular levels of glutathione and without inhibition of glutathione S-transferase, glutathione peroxidase or P450 reductase by TBL, each of which is significantly altered in MCF/AdR cells, and each of which has been proposed to contribute to AdR resistance in this MDR line. Rather, resistance reversal by TBL can be entirely explained by this drug's capacity to restore the intracellular accumulation of AdR in the resistant cells. These results establish that MDR associated with P-gp overexpression can be fully reversed by the potent P-gp inhibitor TBL. They further indicate that although changes in multiple drug-metabolizing enzymes may accompany the development of MDR, these multiple biochemical alterations need not correspond to multiple functional determinants for drug resistance.