Using the BacMam Baculovirus System to Study Expression and Function of Recombinant Efflux Drug Transporters in Polarized Epithelial Cell Monolayers.

The ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter superfamily includes several membrane-bound proteins that are critical to drug pharmacokinetics and disposition. Pharmacologic evaluation of these proteins in vitro remains a challenge. In this study, human ABC transporters were expressed in polarized epithelial cell monolayers transduced using the BacMam baculovirus gene transfer system. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of BacMam baculovirus to transduce cells grown in monolayers. In a porcine kidney cell line, LLC-PK1 cells, baculoviral transduction is successful only via the apical side of a polarized monolayer. We observed that recombinant ABC transporters were expressed on the cell surface with post-translational modification. Furthermore, sodium butyrate played a critical role in recombinant protein expression, and preincubation in the presence of tunicamycin or thapsigargin enhanced protein expression. Cells overexpressing human P-glycoprotein (P-gp) showed vectorial basolateral-to-apical transport of [(3)H]-paclitaxel, which could be reversed by the inhibitor tariquidar. Similarly, coexpression of human P-gp and ABCG2 in LLC-PK1 cells resulted in higher transport of mitoxantrone, which is a substrate for both transporters, than in either P-gp- or ABCG2-expressing cells alone. Taken together, our results indicate that a high level of expression of efflux transporters in a polarized cell monolayer is technically feasible with the BacMam baculovirus system.

Inhibition of glutathione peroxidase mediates the collateral sensitivity of multidrug-resistant cells to tiopronin.

Multidrug resistance (MDR) is a major obstacle to the successful chemotherapy of cancer. MDR is often the result of overexpression of ATP-binding cassette transporters following chemotherapy. A common ATP-binding cassette transporter that is overexpressed in MDR cancer cells is P-glycoprotein, which actively effluxes drugs against a concentration gradient, producing an MDR phenotype. Collateral sensitivity (CS), a phenomenon of drug hypersensitivity, is defined as the ability of certain compounds to selectively target MDR cells, but not the drug-sensitive parent cells from which they were derived. The drug tiopronin has been previously shown to elicit CS. However, unlike other CS agents, the mechanism of action was not dependent on the expression of P-glycoprotein in MDR cells. We have determined that the CS activity of tiopronin is mediated by the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and that CS can be reversed by a variety of ROS-scavenging compounds. Specifically, selective toxicity of tiopronin toward MDR cells is achieved by inhibition of glutathione peroxidase (GPx), and the mode of inhibition of GPx1 by tiopronin is shown in this report. Why MDR cells are particularly sensitive to ROS is discussed, as is the difficulty in exploiting this hypersensitivity to tiopronin in the clinic.