Effects of multidrug resistance, antisense RNA on the chemosensitivity of hepatocellular carcinoma cells

Abstract

Background: Multidrug resistance is a major obstacle in cancer chemotherapy. We examined whether the antisense RNA of multidrug resistance gene 1 (mdr1) could reverse multidrug resistance in the human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell line SMMC7721/ADM.

Methods: The recombinant adenoviruses pAdEasy-GFP-ASmdr1 product was produced by the adenoviral vector AdEasy system, which can express antisense RNA against the mdr1 gene. Following that, the recombinant adenovirus was transfected into the P-glycoprotein-producing multidrug resistance cell line, SMMC7721/ADM human HCC cells resistant to adriamycin (ADM) and daunorubicin (DNR). In order to investigate the reversal of multidrug resistance phenotype, we measured the expression of mdr1 mRNA by RT-PCR and the production of P-glycoprotein by flow cytometry. The sensitivities for ADM and DNR SMMC7721/ADM cells were examined by [3-(4, 5-dimethylthi-azol-2-yl)-2,5 diphenyl-terazolium bromide] (MTT) analysis.

Results: The low-level expression of mdr1 mRNA and P-glycoprotein production were observed in parental sensitive cells SMMC/7721 in addition to the overexpression of mdr1 mRNA and P-glycoprotein in SMMC7721/ADM cells. The transfection of antisense-RNA into SMMC7721/ADM cells resulted in decreases of mdr1 mRNA and P-glycoprotein, but increase of drug sensitivities. The sensitivities of transfected SMMC7721/ADM cells to ADM and DNR in IC50 reduced by 31.25% and 62.96% respectively.

Conclusions: Mdr1 antisense RNA can increase the sensitivities of SMMC7721/ADM cells to anticancer drug by decreasing the expression of the mdr1 gene and inhibiting P-glycoprotein expression. This strategy may be applicable to cancer patients with P-glycoprotein mediated multidrug resistance.