In vivo circumvention of P-glycoprotein-mediated multidrug resistance of tumor cells with SDZ PSC 833

The new nonimmunosuppressive cyclosporin analogue, SDZ PSC 833, is a very potent multidrug-resistance modifier. In vitro, it was shown to be at least 10-fold more active than cyclosporin A (Sandimmune), itself more active than verapamil, on most P-glycoprotein-expressing multidrug-resistant (MDR) tumor cell lines. In vivo, SDZ PSC 833 was tested in a few protocols of combined therapy with either Vinca alkaloids or doxorubicin as anticancer drugs, using the homologous tumor-host system (P388 cells of DBA/2 origin grafted into DBA/2 or B6D2F1 mice). Although these MDR-P388 tumor cells belong to a highly resistant variant that in vitro required about 150-fold more anticancer drug for 50% cell growth inhibition than the parental P388 cells, significant prolongation of survival times of the MDR-P388 tumor-bearing mice was obtained when treated with a combination of SDZ PSC 833 p.o. were otherwise ineffective doses of anticancer drugs given i.p. This chemosensitizing effect of SDZ PSC 833 was dose-dependent and was most effective in a protocol combining administration of SDZ PSC 833 p.o. 4 h before a doxorubicin i.p. injection: in comparison with the survival of MDR-P388 tumor-bearing mice treated with the anticancer drug alone, the pretreatment with SDZ PSC 833 at 25 and 50 mg/kg gave 2- to 3-fold increases of survival times. Since the MDR-P388 tumor cells used in our studies belong to a highly resistant variant, with a much higher degree of drug resistance than the one known to occur in cancer patients, SDZ PSC 833 appears to be a very promising chemosensitizer.