Transmembrane transporters ABCC – structure, function and role in multidrug resistance of cancer cells

• Main Authors: Sylwia Dębska, Agata Owecka, Urszula Czernek, Katarzyna Szydłowska-Pazera, Maja Habib, Piotr Potemski
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Index Copernicus International S.A. 2011-08-01
• Series: Postępy Higieny i Medycyny Doświadczalnej
• Subjects: białka oporności wielolekowej; glikoproteina P; białka wiążące ATP; podrodzina C; Multidrug Resistance-Associated Proteins; P-Glycoprotein; ATP-binding cassette; subfamily C
• Online Access: http://journals.indexcopernicus.com/fulltxt.php?ICID=956500

Resistance to cytotoxic drugs is a significant problem of systemic treatment of cancers. Apart from drug inactivation, changes in target enzymes and proteins, increased DNA repair and suppression of apoptosis, an important mechanism of resistance is an active drug efflux from cancer cells. Drug efflux across the cell membrane is caused by transport proteins such as ABC proteins (ATP-binding cassette). This review focuses on the ABCC protein subfamily, whose members are responsible for multidrug cross-resistance of cancer cells to cytotoxic agents. The authors discuss the structure of ABCC proteins, their physiological function and diseases provoked by mutations of respective genes, their expression in many different malignancies and its connection with resistance to anticancer drugs, as well as methods of reversion of such resistance.