Anticancer therapy and its modulation: role of multi-drug resistance proteins

Drug resistance is the major constraint for chemotherapeutic agents used for the treatment of neoplastic diseases. Drug resistance of currently used chemotherapeutic agents is mainly due to over expression of certain proteins in the cells which resist the entry of drug molecules to the cells in therapeutic concentration. Endogenous proteins viz. p-glycoprotein, Breast Cancer Resistance Protein and other multidrug resistance trance-membrane transporter proteins play an important role in regulating drug disposition of various clinically used therapeutic drugs. Expression of p-glycoprotein is the major hurdle for effectiveness of anti-neoplastic drugs. Modulation in p-glycoprotein expression or drug combination along with p-glycoprotein inhibitor improves the efficacy of therapeutic drugs for the treatment of certain diseases. Studies have also demonstrated that p-glycoprotein has an important clinical implication in term of efficacy. Therapeutic agent along with p-glycoprotein inhibitors can be exploited as a tool for therapy and development of cancer drugs.