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.

Collateral sensitivity as a strategy against cancer multidrug resistance.

While chemotherapy remains the most effective treatment for disseminated tumors, acquired or intrinsic drug resistance accounts for approximately 90% of treatment failure. Multidrug resistance (MDR), the simultaneous resistance to drugs that differ both structurally and mechanistically, often results from drug efflux pumps in the cell membrane that reduce intracellular drug levels to less than therapeutic concentrations. Expression of the MDR transporter P-glycoprotein (P-gp, MDR1, ABCB1) has been shown to correlate with overall poor chemotherapy response and prognosis. This review will focus on collateral sensitivity (CS), the ability of compounds to kill MDR cells selectively over the parental cells from which they were derived. Insights into CS may offer an alternative strategy for the clinical resolution of MDR, as highly selective and potent CS agents may lead to drugs that are effective at MDR cell killing and tumor resensitization. Four main mechanistic hypotheses for CS will be reviewed, followed by a discussion on quantitative and experimental evaluation of CS.

Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification Detection of SARS-CoV-2 and Myriad Other Applications.

As the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic begins, it remains clear that a massive increase in the ability to test for SARS-CoV-2 infections in a myriad of settings is critical to controlling the pandemic and to preparing for future outbreaks. The current gold standard for molecular diagnostics is the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), but the extraordinary and unmet demand for testing in a variety of environments means that both complementary and supplementary testing solutions are still needed. This review highlights the role that loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) has had in filling this global testing need, providing a faster and easier means of testing, and what it can do for future applications, pathogens, and the preparation for future outbreaks. This review describes the current state of the art for research of LAMP-based SARS-CoV-2 testing, as well as its implications for other pathogens and testing. The authors represent the global LAMP (gLAMP) Consortium, an international research collective, which has regularly met to share their experiences on LAMP deployment and best practices; sections are devoted to all aspects of LAMP testing, including preanalytic sample processing, target amplification, and amplicon detection, then the hardware and software required for deployment are discussed, and finally, a summary of the current regulatory landscape is provided. Included as well are a series of first-person accounts of LAMP method development and deployment. The final discussion section provides the reader with a distillation of the most validated testing methods and their paths to implementation. This review also aims to provide practical information and insight for a range of audiences: for a research audience, to help accelerate research through sharing of best practices; for an implementation audience, to help get testing up and running quickly; and for a public health, clinical, and policy audience, to help convey the breadth of the effect that LAMP methods have to offer.

Collateral sensitivity of multidrug-resistant cells to the orphan drug tiopronin.

A major challenge in the treatment of cancer is multidrug resistance (MDR) that develops during chemotherapy. Here we demonstrate that tiopronin (1), a thiol-substituted N-propanoylglycine derivative, was selectively toxic to a series of cell lines expressing the drug efflux pump P-glycoprotein (P-gp, ABCB1) and MRP1 (ABCC1). Treatment of MDR cells with 1 led to instability of the ABCB1 mRNA and consequently a reduction in P-gp protein, despite functional assays demonstrating that tiopronin does not interact with P-gp. Long-term exposure of P-gp-expressing cells to 1 sensitized them to doxorubicin and paclitaxel, both P-gp substrates. Treatment of MRP1-overexpressing cells with tiopronin led to a significant reduction in MRP1 protein. Synthesis and screening of analogues of tiopronin demonstrated that the thiol functional group was essential for collateral sensitivity while substitution of the amino acid backbone altered but did not destroy specificity, pointing to future development of targeted analogues.