Induction and reversion of multixenobiotic resistance in the marine snail Monodonta turbinata

Many marine organisms inherently express the presence and function of a new defence mechanism, termed multixenobiotic resistance mechanism (MXRM) because of its similarity to multidrug resistance (MDR) found in tumor cell lines resistant to chemotherapeutic drugs. However, previously no information was available on a possible induction of the activity of MXRM in organisms living at polluted sites. The purpose of the present study was to demonstrate the inducibility of this defence mechanism in the marine snail Monodonta turbinata, an organism known to inhabit a wide range of environmental conditions existing along a pollution gradient. Specimens of M. turbinata used in the present study were collected from March 1993 through March 1994 near Rovinj, Croatia. The accumulation of generally labelled super(3)H-vincristine ( super(3)H-VCR) in the gills of snails living at an unpolluted site was 67% higher and very sensitive to verapamil, an inhibitor of P-glycoprotein activity in comparison to snails living at a polluted site. The accumulation of vincristine (VCR) in snails from a polluted site was reduced and insensitive to verapamil due to the induced state of P-glycoprotein, as was demonstrated immunochemically by the enhanced concentration of a 140 kDa protein cross-reacting with the polyclonal antibodies raised against mammalian P-glycoprotein. MXRM could be induced in snails from the unpolluted site to the level found in snails living at a polluted site either by transplantation for 3 d to a polluted site, or by exposure for 3 d to sea water polluted with Diesel-2 oil (hydrocarbon concentration equivalent to 50 ppb of Kuwait oil). Discovery of the inducibility of this new defence mechanism in aquatic organisms may have important implications in ecotoxicology, as was demonstrated by a 104% enhanced accumulation of VCR in the presence of the MXRM-inhibitor, the so-called "chemosensitizer". Besides, a striking difference in the levels of MXRM-elements (the sensitivity of the accumulation rate of xenobiotics to verapamil, immunochemical expression of P-glycoprotein, and the sensitivity of the binding of xenobiotics on membrane vesicles to verapamil) found between specimens living at the polluted and unpolluted sites offers a new molecular biomarker for exposure to pollutants.