Experimentally induced changes in the endocytic traffic of P-glycoprotein alter drug resistance of cancer cells

H. Kim, M. Barroso, R. Samanta, L. Greenberger and E. Sztul Department of Cell Biology, University of Alabama, Birmingham School of Medicine 35294, USA. The MDR-1 gene product, plasma membrane glycoprotein or P-glycoprotein (PGP), has been shown to confer drug resistance to cancer cells by acting as an energy-dependent drug-efflux pump. We have examined the endocytic traffic of PGP in human multidrug-resistant cells and tested whether the traffic and the steady-state intracellular localization of PGP can be experimentally modulated. Here we show that 1) under steady state approximately 70% of cellular PGP is on the surface whereas approximately 30% is intracellular, 2) surface PGP undergoes constitutive endocytosis and recycling, 3) endocytosis of PGP involves clathrin and adaptin complex 2-dependent mechanism, and 4) PGP cycles through a Rab5-responsive endosomal compartment. Biochemical (such as antibody crosslinking of PGP or treatment of cells with chloroquine) and molecular (such as overexpression of Rab5) treatments were used to modulate the endocytic/ recycling traffic of PGP. Such treatments resulted in the redistribution of PGP from the cell surface to intracellular compartments. Cells with such "mislocalized" PGP showed a decrease in multidrug resistance, suggesting that clinically relevant strategies can be attempted by modulating PGP's temporal and spatial distribution within cancer cells.