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Advances in Brief |
1 Cancer Therapeutics Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, and 2 Xenova Research, Slough, Berkshire, United Kingdom
| ABSTRACT |
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| Introduction |
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| Materials and Methods |
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Cell Lines.
Selected cell lines overexpressing Pgp, MRP1, or ABCG2 were examined and are listed in Table 1
. All of the cells were cultured in RPMI 1640 supplemented with 10% FCS, glutamine, and antibiotic, except for MCF-7 cells and sublines, which were maintained in Improved Minimum Essential Medium (IMEM). We also examined HEK-293 cells that were transfected with empty pcDNA3 vector (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA) or pcDNA3 vector containing full-length ABCG2 encoding arginine, threonine, or glycine at amino acid 482. ABCG2 transfectants were grown in Eagles Minimum Essential Medium (EMEM; American Type Culture Collection, Manassas, VA) supplemented with 10% FCS, glutamine, and antibiotic along with 2 mg/ml G418 (Invitrogen). The transfected cells have been characterized previously (10)
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Flow Cytometry.
The flow cytometry studies presented here are based on those described previously (6)
. Briefly, trypsinized cells were incubated in complete medium (phenol red-free IMEM with 10% FCS) with 10 µM PhA with or without 10 µM of the ABCG2 inhibitor FTC for 30 min at 37°C in 5% CO2. Cells were washed subsequently with cold complete medium and then incubated for 1 h at 37°C in PhA-free complete medium with 10 µM FTC to generate the FTC/Efflux histogram, or without FTC to generate the Efflux histogram. The cells subsequently were washed twice with cold PBS and analyzed by flow cytometry. FTC/Efflux - Efflux values, the difference in mean channel numbers between the FTC/Efflux and Efflux histograms, were calculated for each cell line as a measure of FTC-inhibitable PhA efflux. For comparison, ABCG2-mediated transport also was assessed using 20 µM mitoxantrone with 10 µM FTC. When assessing Pgp transport, rhodamine 123 (0.5 µg/ml) was used as a substrate, and valspodar (3 µg/ml) was used as the inhibitor; for MRP1 transport, calcein AM (0.5 µM) was used as the substrate, and probenecid (0.5 mM) was used as the inhibitor. When screening potential ABCG2 inhibitors using ABCG2-transfected cells, PhA was used at a concentration of 1 µM with or without the desired inhibitor [5 µg/ml valspodar (PSC-833), 10 µg/ml verapamil, 10 µM cyclosporin A, 50 µM etoposide, 1 µM tariquidar, 100 µM UCN-01, and 100 µM flavopiridol] and 10 µM FTC to generate Inhibitor/Efflux peaks. Results are representative of at least two separate experiments.
In studies with the anti-ABCG2 antibody 5D3, cells were incubated in 2% BSA/DPBS with either phycoerythrin-labeled negative control antibody (IgG2b) or phycoerythrin-labeled 5D3 antibody (both from eBioscience, San Diego, CA) according to the manufacturers instructions, washed with Dulbeccos Phosphate Buffered Saline (DPBS), and subsequently analyzed. Surface expression of ABCG2 was calculated as the difference in mean channel numbers between the 5D3 histogram and the negative control antibody histogram. Average values for surface expression and FTC-inhibitable efflux were obtained from at least two separate experiments.
Samples were analyzed on a FACSort flow cytometer (Becton Dickinson, San Jose, CA). Phycoerythrin fluorescence was detected with a 488-nm argon laser and a 585-nm bandpass filter, whereas PhA (or mitoxantrone) was detected using a 635-nm red diode laser and a 561-nm filter. Rhodamine 123 and calcein fluorescence was detected with a 488-nm argon laser and a 530-nm bandpass filter. Where noted, PhA fluorescence also was measured with a 488-nm argon laser and 670-nm bandpass filter. At least 10,000 events were collected for all of the flow cytometry studies. By gating on forward versus side scatter, debris was eliminated, and dead cells were excluded based on propidium iodide staining.
Cytotoxicity Assays.
Cytotoxicity assays were performed as described previously (10)
based on the colorimetric assay of Skehan et al. (11)
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| Results |
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Transport of PhA by ABCG2 Is Not Affected by Mutations at Amino Acid 482.
Because amino acid 482 has been shown to affect the substrate specificity of the ABCG2 protein, we examined transport of PhA in HEK-293 cells stably transfected with wild-type (482R) or mutant (482T and 482G) ABCG2. Cells that overexpress the wild-type protein (482R) are resistant to mitoxantrone and the camptothecins topotecan and SN-38. When the amino acid at position 482 is mutated to a threonine (482T) or glycine (482G), rhodamine 123 and the anthracyclines are added to the list of substrates (10
, 12, 13, 14)
. We selected transfectants that expressed comparable levels of ABCG2 as assessed by staining with 5D3 antibody and performed efflux studies on these cells. All of the transfectants transported PhA as seen in Fig. 1D
, suggesting transport was unaffected by amino acid 482 mutations.
Correlation of PhA Efflux with ABCG2 Expression.
In previous studies with mitoxantrone and BODIPY-prazosin, a linear relationship was found between FTC-inhibitable efflux and expression of ABCG2 mRNA as measured by Northern blot analysis (6)
. When average values of FTC-inhibitable PhA efflux were plotted against average values of ABCG2 surface expression as determined with the 5D3 antibody in 20 parental and selected cell lines (marked "a" in Table 1
), a linear relationship was observed as seen in Fig. 1E
(top graph) with r2 = 0.87.
FTC-inhibitable PhA efflux values were calculated by measuring the fluorescence of PhA with a 635-nm laser and a 561-nm bandpass filter; however, PhA fluorescence also could be detected using a 488-nm argon laser with a 670-nm long pass filter. This also has been reported for mitoxantrone (7)
. We next calculated FTC-inhibitable PhA efflux values with excitation at 488 nm for selected cell lines and transfectants and compared this value with the surface expression of ABCG2 and again found a linear correlation as seen in Fig. 1E
(bottom graph) with r2 = 0.83.
Screening Potential Inhibitors of ABCG2.
We next used PhA efflux as a tool to identify new inhibitors of ABCG2-mediated drug resistance. Because the Pgp inhibitor GF120918 also was shown to be an ABCG2 inhibitor, we examined the ability of the known Pgp inhibitors verapamil, valspodar, cyclosporin A, and tariquidar to inhibit ABCG2-mediated PhA transport (15)
. The ability of the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor UCN-01 to inhibit PhA transport was tested based on previous observations that the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor flavopiridol inhibits ABCG2 function (16)
. Etoposide, a relatively poor ABCG2 substrate, also was examined to see whether it might competitively inhibit PhA transport (10)
. HEK-293 cells transfected with either wild-type or mutant ABCG2 were incubated with PhA in the presence of the potential ABCG2 inhibitor. We included wild-type and mutant ABCG2-transfected cells in our analysis because previous results with novobiocin demonstrated that amino acid 482 can affect inhibitor specificity (10)
. FTC at a concentration of 10 µM was included as a positive control. Verapamil at 10 µg/ml had no effect on PhA transport (Fig. 2)
. Surprisingly, the Pgp inhibitor tariquidar was able to inhibit ABCG2-mediated transport at a concentration of 1 µM. UCN-01 also was able to inhibit wild-type and mutant ABCG2 proteins at a concentration of 100 µM. In agreement with previous reports, 100 µM of the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor flavopiridol was able to completely inhibit ABCG2 (16)
. The compounds cyclosporin A (10 µM), etoposide (50 µM), and valspodar (5 µg/ml) did not inhibit ABCG2-mediated PhA transport (data not shown). Representative results with verapamil (10 µg/ml), tariquidar (1 µM), UCN-01 (100 µM), flavopiridol (100 µM), and FTC (10 µM) are shown in Fig. 2
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| Discussion |
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FTC-inhibitable PhA transport was found to correlate well with ABCG2 expression in selected cell lines overexpressing ABCG2. As also has been described for mitoxantrone, PhA fluorescence was detected by excitation with a standard 488-nm argon laser and a 635-nm red diode laser, allowing detection of PhA fluorescence on standard flow cytometers (7) . This property may be particularly helpful to isolate "side population" cells. Side population cells have been isolated from many tissue types, but isolation of these cells involves the use of Hoechst 33342, a fluorescent dye that requires UV excitation. Expression of ABCG2 and Pgp has been demonstrated in bone marrow stem cell populations, and it is believed that ABCG2 expression may define primitive quiescent hematopoietic stem cells, whereas Pgp may be expressed in more activated repopulating stem cells (17) . Hoechst 33342 is a substrate of Pgp and ABCG2; therefore, activated cells that express Pgp will be isolated with more primitive cells that express ABCG2. Thus, a potential use of PhA is to isolate primitive ABCG2-expressing stem cells.
Because there is some overlap in substrate specificity between ABCG2 and Pgp, we evaluated the ability of known Pgp inhibitors to abrogate ABCG2-mediated PhA transport. Our results show tariquidar (XR9576) to be a multispecific blocker as has been described for GF120198 (15) . Although tariquidar inhibits Pgp at nanomolar concentrations, micromolar concentrations are needed to inhibit ABCG2, likely indicating a higher affinity for Pgp than for ABCG2 (18) . Therefore, tariquidar, as with GF120918, would be expected to increase the oral bioavailability of topotecan (19) . It is not known whether tariquidar itself is transported by ABCG2. Ultimately, the value of ABCG2 inhibitors or multispecific inhibitors will depend on the importance of the drug transporters in clinical drug resistance. Proof of this for Pgp has been difficult to attain despite numerous clinical trials attempting its modulation (20) .
We have demonstrated previously overexpression of ABCG2 in cells selected for resistance to the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor flavopiridol, and inhibition of ABCG2-mediated transport by flavopiridol (16) . Our previous findings led us to test the ability of the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor UCN-01 to inhibit PhA transport in ABCG2-transfected cells. Transport of PhA was inhibited by 100 µM UCN-01. Because flavopiridol was found to be an inhibitor and a substrate of ABCG2, 4-day cytotoxicity assays were performed with UCN-01 on ABCG2-transfected cells. ABCG2 was shown to confer resistance to UCN-01, most likely indicating that UCN-01 is a substrate of ABCG2 and therefore most likely a competitive inhibitor of ABCG2-mediated transport. The results presented here suggest that the effectiveness of UCN-01 may be limited in tumors that overexpress ABCG2.
Amino acid 482 has been shown to play a pivotal role in the substrate and inhibitor specificity of ABCG2. Initial studies of drug-selected cell lines overexpressing ABCG2 often demonstrated discrepancies in their cross-resistance profiles regarding anthracycline resistance, and later studies linked these discrepancies to a difference in the amino acid at position 482 (21 , 22) . The ability of amino acid 482 to affect the substrate specificity of ABCG2 was confirmed later in transient transfection assays (12) . Stable transfectants expressing wild-type ABCG2 with an arginine at amino acid 482 were resistant to mitoxantrone, SN-38, and camptothecin, whereas cells transfected with mutant ABCG2 with a glycine or threonine at position 482 also were resistant to the anthracyclines and rhodamine 123 (10) . PhA was found to be transported by wild-type and mutant ABCG2, as has been shown for mitoxantrone. Allen et al. (14) have postulated that the loss of the negatively charged arginine may be a factor to determine the substrate specificity of ABCG2, suggesting that the wild-type protein would not transport the positively charged compounds. However, PhA is predicted to carry a net positive charge at physiologic pH, much like mitoxantrone, which is a substrate for wild-type and mutant ABCG2. Thus, the role of amino acid 482 in substrate specificity remains to be elucidated.
In summary, PhA has been shown to be an ABCG2-specific substrate, and FTC-inhibitable PhA efflux correlates with ABCG2 expression. FTC-inhibitable efflux is detectable in cells that express low amounts of the protein, making this assay useful to determine ABCG2 expression and function in clinical samples. Additional studies exploring the potential of tariquidar as an ABCG2 inhibitor are warranted.
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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| FOOTNOTES |
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Requests for reprints: Robert W. Robey, Cancer Therapeutics Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, 9000 Rockville Pike, Building 10, Room 12C103, Bethesda, MD 20892. Phone: 301-496-0795; Fax: 301-402-1608; E-mail: robeyr{at}mail.nih.gov
Received 10/20/03. Revised 12/ 5/03. Accepted 12/19/03.
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