MDR1 RNA levels were occasionally elevated in other untreated cancers, including neuroblastoma, acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) in adults, acute nonlymphocytic leukemia (ANLL) in adults, and indolent non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
The results indicate that the level of MDR1 mRNA expression is associated with previous chemotherapy, including drugs that select the multidrug resistance phenotype in vitro regardless of neuroblastoma tissue origin or N-myc content in the genome.
Many of the neuroblastoma samples were also evaluated for N-myc amplification but there was no correlation between N-myc copy number and the level of MDR1 mRNA expression.
Because expression of mdr-1 is increased in neuroblastoma cell lines by differentiating agents, the authors hypothesized a similar correlation with differentiation in vivo in neuroblastomas.
Expression of N-myc, c-myc, and MDR-1 proteins in newly established neuroblastoma cell lines: a study by immunofluorescence staining and flow cytometry.
A panel of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) to P-glycoprotein was developed by immunization of mice with multidrug-resistant human neuroepithelioma and neuroblastoma cells.
Decreased expression of the N-myc oncogene in neuroblastoma cell lines SH-SY5Y and BE(2)-C, following treatment with retinoic acid, was paralleled by down-regulation of MRP gene expression, contrasting with increased expression of the MDR1 gene.
This study offers compelling evidence that (a) IGR-N-91 is a human neuroblastoma xenograft model able to induce metastasis in nude mice, (b) an increase in MYCN and MDR1 transcripts levels is associated with the metastatic process, and (c) IGR-N-91 provides a biological tool for the study of gene activations during tumor dissemination in neuroblastoma.
A similar strong association has been observed between the expression of P-glycoprotein and outcome of treatment in certain malignancies in children, such as neuroblastoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, and acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Lovastatin, a nonreversible inhibitor of HMG-CoA reductase, induced extensive cytotoxicity that was restricted to drug-resistant P-glycoprotein-expressing neuroblastoma cell lines.
Though Pgp expression is detectable and functional in neuroblastoma cells, but its presence does not provide much information to the complex phenomenon of chemotherapy resistance in patients.
The results show that BS-RNase selectively kills NB cells by inducing apoptosis and that this agent is active against mdr-1 expressing cells both in vitro and in vivo.
To rule out the possibility that multidrug resistance (MDR) genes are involved in development of acquired drug resistance in murine neuroblastoma (rMNB/MDL) cells made resistant to MDL, the expression of Mdr1a, Mdr1b, Mdr2 (multidrug resistance/P-glycoprotein), and Mrp-1 (multidrug resistance associated protein) was examined in rMNB-MDL cells.
Sections from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tumor blocks from 52 neuroblastoma cases (17 with localized, 35 with advanced disease) were subjected to immunohistochemistry for P-gp and GST-pi expressions.
Meningioma cells frequently co-expressed P-gp and MRP1, while, most of the neuroblastoma cell lines express higher P-gp but lower MRP1 levels as compared to the other tumor types.
Data from present study suggest that transcriptional inactivation of MDR1 gene due to increased MDR1 promoter methylation may be a contributing factor in pathogenesis and progression of neuroblastoma tumors, and may be used in designing an effective treatment therapy to neuroblastoma patients.
To this end, we used an inducible siRNA (small interfering RNA) expression system to silence the expression of MRP1 and MDR1 in human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells.
Multidrug resistance protein 1 has been previously implicated in the development of drug resistance, particularly with regard to influencing clinical outcomes in neuroblastoma.