Triapine-mediated ABCB1 induction via PKC induces widespread therapy unresponsiveness but is not underlying acquired triapine resistance

Author(s)
W. Miklos, K. Pelivan, C. R. Kowol, C. Pirker, R. Dornetshuber-Fleiss, M. Spitzwieser, B. Englinger, S. van Schoonhoven, M. Cichna-Markl, G. Koellensperger, B. K. Keppler, W. Berger, P. Heffeter
Abstract

Although triapine is promising for treatment of advanced leukemia, it failed against solid tumors due to widely unknown reasons. To address this issue, a new triapine-resistant cell line (SW480/tria) was generated by drug selection and investigated in this study. Notably, SW480/tria cells displayed broad cross-resistance against several known ABCB1 substrates due to high ABCB1 levels (induced by promoter hypomethylation). However, ABCB1 inhibition did not re-sensitize SW480/tria cells to triapine and subsequent analysis revealed that triapine is only a weak ABCB1 substrate without significant interaction with the ABCB1 transport function. Interestingly, in chemo-naive, parental SW480 cells short-time (24 h) treatment with triapine stimulated ABCB1 expression. These effects were based on activation of protein kinase C (PKC), a known response to cellular stress. In accordance, SW480/tria cells were characterized by elevated levels of PKC. Together, this led to the conclusion that increased ABCB1 expression is not the major mechanism of triapine resistance in SW480/tria cells. In contrast, increased ABCB1 expression was found to be a consequence of triapine stress-induced PKC activation. These data are especially of importance when considering the choice of chemotherapeutics for combination with triapine.

Organisation(s)
Department of Inorganic Chemistry, Department of Analytical Chemistry
External organisation(s)
Medizinische Universität Wien
Journal
Cancer Letters
Volume
361
Pages
112-120
No. of pages
9
ISSN
0304-3835
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.canlet.2015.02.049
Publication date
05-2015
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
301904 Cancer research
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Oncology, Cancer Research
Sustainable Development Goals
SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/7f362fe1-befb-45bc-8d35-73082e81cd86