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Review
. 2017 May 9;9(5):48.
doi: 10.3390/cancers9050048.

Targeting Intracellular Calcium Signaling ([Ca2+]i) to Overcome Acquired Multidrug Resistance of Cancer Cells: A Mini-Overview

Dietrich Büsselberg  1 , Ana-Maria Florea  2
Affiliations
Review

Targeting Intracellular Calcium Signaling ([Ca2+]i) to Overcome Acquired Multidrug Resistance of Cancer Cells: A Mini-Overview

Dietrich Büsselberg et al. Cancers (Basel). .

Abstract

Cancer is a main public health problem all over the world. It affects millions of humans no matter their age, gender, education, or social status. Although chemotherapy is the main strategy for the treatment of cancer, a major problem limiting its success is the intrinsic or acquired drug resistance. Therefore, cancer drug resistance is a major impediment in medical oncology resulting in a failure of a successful cancer treatment. This mini-overview focuses on the interdependent relationship between intracellular calcium ([Ca2+]i) signaling and multidrug resistance of cancer cells, acquired upon treatment of tumors with anticancer drugs. We propose that [Ca2+]i signaling modulates gene expression of multidrug resistant (MDR) genes which in turn can be modulated by epigenetic factors which in turn leads to modified protein expression in drug resistant tumor cells. A precise knowledge of these mechanisms will help to develop new therapeutic strategies for drug resistant tumors and will improve current chemotherapy.

Keywords: calcium signaling; cancer; chemotherapy; drug resistance; epigenetic factors.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Hypothesis: the interconnections of the molecular mechanisms for the link between calcium signaling and multidrug resistance.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Overall survival of the neuroblastoma patients in correlation with the gene expression of ABC transporters. (left) ABCB1 (high expression = bad prognosis); (right) ABCC1 (low expression = bad prognosis) (taken from Oncogenomics database accessible under https://pob.abcc.ncifcrf.gov/cgi-bin/JK).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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