Abstract 1531: BCR-Abl tyrosine kinase inhibitor Nilotinib (Tasigna®) reverses ABCB1/Pgp- and ABCG2/BCRP-mediated multidrug resistance

Abstract

Abstract Over-expression of ABC transporters are involved in the extrusion of therapeutic drugs, leading to MDR, which can eventually produce cancer chemotherapy failure. Previously, it was shown that specific TKIs could modulate several human multidrug resistance (MDR) ATP-binding cassette (ABC) proteins. Recently discovered second generation, BCR-Abl tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), Nilotinib was developed to surmount resistance or intolerance to imatinib in patients with Philadelphia positive chronic myelogenous leukemia. Here, we report for the first time that nilotinib not only potentiates the cytotoxicity of widely used therapeutic substrates of ABCB1, such as colchicine, vincristine, and paclitaxel, but also that of ABCG2 substrates such as mitoxantrone and doxorubicin. Nilotinib also significantly enhances the intracellular accumulation of methotrexate (MTX) in cells transfected with ABCG2. Similarly, nilotinib significantly increases the accumulation of paclitaxel in cell lines overexpressing ABCB1. Furthermore, nilotinib produces a concentration-dependent inhibition of the ABCG2-mediated transport of MTX, as well as E217βG a physiological substrate of ABCG2. Uptake studies in membrane vesicles over-expressing ABCG2 have indicated that nilotinib inhibits ABCG2 similar to other established TKIs as well as fumitremorgin C. In addition, the kinetic analysis demonstrated that nilotinib is a potent competitive inhibitor of MTX transport by ABCG2 with a Ki value of 0.69+/-0.083 μM. To sum it up, our results indicate that nilotinib could reverse ABCB1- and ABCG2-mediated MDR by blocking the efflux function of these transporters. These findings may be useful in clinical practice for cancer combination therapy with nilotinib and may be vital to the design of present and future clinical trials with nilotinib, elucidating potential pharmacokinetic interactions. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1531.