The anti-estrogen receptor drug, tamoxifen, is selectively Lethal to P-glycoprotein-expressing Multidrug resistant tumor cells

Background P-glycoprotein (P-gp), a member of the ATP Binding Cassette B1 subfamily (ABCB1), confers resistance to clinically relevant anticancer drugs and targeted chemotherapeutics. However, paradoxically P-glycoprotein overexpressing drug resistant cells are "collaterally sensitive " to non-toxic drugs that stimulate its ATPase activity. Methods Cell viability assays were used to determine the effect of low concentrations of tamoxifen on the proliferation of multidrug resistant cells (CHO(R)C5 and MDA-Doxo(400)), expressing P-gp, their parental cell lines (AuxB1 and MDA-MB-231) or P-gp-CRISPR knockout clones of AuxB1 and CHO(R)C5 cells. Western blot analysis was used to estimate P-gp expression in different cell lines. Apoptosis of tamoxifen-induced cell death was estimated by flow cytometry using Annexin-V-FITC stained cells. Oxidative stress of tamoxifen treated cells was determined by measuring levels of reactive oxygen species and reduced thiols using cell-permeant 2',7'-dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate (H2DCFDA) and 5,5-dithio-bis-(2-nitrobenzoic acid) DTNB, respectively. Results In this report, we show that P-gp-expressing drug resistant cells (CHO(R)C5 and MDA-Doxo(400)) are collaterally sensitive to the anti-estrogen tamoxifen or its metabolite (4-hydroxy-tamoxifen). Moreover, P-gp-knockout clones of CHO(R)C5 cells display complete reversal of collateral sensitivity to tamoxifen. Drug resistant cells exposed to low concentrations of tamoxifen show significant rise in reactive oxygen species, drop of reduced cellular thiols and increased apoptosis. Consistent with the latter, CHO(R)C5 cells expressing high levels of human Bcl-2 (CHO(R)C5-Bcl-2) show significant resistance to tamoxifen. In addition, the presence of the antioxidant N-acetylcysteine or P-gp ATPase inhibitor, PSC-833, reverse the collateral sensitivity of resistant cells to tamoxifen. By contrast, the presence of rotenone (specific inhibitor of mitochondria complex I) synergizes with tamoxifen. Conclusion This study demonstrates the use of tamoxifen as collateral sensitivity drug that can preferentially target multidrug resistant cells expressing P-gp at clinically achievable concentrations. Given the widespread use of tamoxifen in the treatment of estrogen receptor-positive breast cancers, this property of tamoxifen may have clinical applications in treatment of P-gp-positive drug resistant breast tumors.