Binding and inhibition of drug transport proteins by heparin A potential drug transporter modulator capable of reducing multidrug resistance in human cancer cells

A major problem in cancer treatment is the development of resistance to chemotherapeutic agents, multidrug resistance (MDR), associated with increased activity of transmembrane drug transporter proteins which impair cytotoxic treatment by rapidly removing the drugs from the targeted cells. Previously, it has been shown that heparin treatment of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy increases survival. In order to determine whether heparin is capable reducing MDR and increasing the potency of chemotherapeutic drugs, the cytoxicity of a number of agents toward four cancer cell lines (a human enriched breast cancer stem cell line, two human breast cancer cell lines, MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231, and a human lung cancer cell line A549) was tested in the presence or absence of heparin. Results demonstrated that heparin increased the cytotoxicity of a range of chemotherapeutic agents. This effect was associated with the ability of heparin to bind to several of the drug transport proteins of the ABC and non ABC transporter systems. Among the ABC system, heparin treatment caused significant inhibition of the ATPase activity of ABCG2 and ABCC1, and of the efflux function observed as enhanced intracellular accumulation of specific substrates. Doxorubicin cytoxicity, which was enhanced by heparin treatment of MCF-7 cells, was found to be under the control of one of the major non-ABC transporter proteins, lung resistance protein (LRP). LRP was also shown to be a heparin-binding protein. These findings indicate that heparin has a potential role in the clinic as a drug transporter modulator to reduce multidrug resistance in cancer patients.