Cell-derived microvesicles and antitumoral multidrug resistance.
Antitumoral chemotherapeutic treatments are often impaired by innate or acquired multidrug resistance (MDR). After four decades of MDR research, having underlined its complexity, new knowledge about the mechanisms of tumor resistance to antineoplastic drugs is a prerequisite for improving chemotherapy. Following our observations with a non-pathogenic eukaryotic microorganism, Dictyostelium discoideum, I suggest that MDR in tumor cells might be the consequence of a detoxification mechanism, mediated by cell-derived microvesicles. Recently published observations with tumoral human cells support this hypothesis. First, these cell-derived vesicles might impair chemotherapeutic efficiency of many structurally-different antineoplastic agents by preventing them to reach their intracellular target, followed by their expulsion outside the tumor cells, as observed for Dictyostelium cells. Secondly, besides their newly recognized function of intercellular communication, the cell-derived vesicles might also act as intercellular transporters of multidrug resistance proteins. Experiments are suggested for checking the hypothesis of cell-derived vesicles mediating multidrug resistance.
Laboratoire acides nucléiques et biophotonique (ANBioPhi), UPMC/CNRS, 4, place Jussieu, case courrier 138, 75252 Paris cedex O5, France. irene.tatischeff@upmc.fr
Irène
I
Tatischeff
D055252:Cell-Derived Microparticles / Q000502:physiology*; D004023:Dictyostelium / Q000648:ultrastructure; D018432:Drug Resistance, Multiple / Q000502:physiology*; D019008:Drug Resistance, Neoplasm / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans