Drug resistance in cancer cells is a frequent cause of breast cancer therapy failure. The aim of this thesis was to elucidate mechanisms of resistance to taxanes, that are used in therapy of various types of cancer, including breast cancer. We particularly assessed the role of autophagy and changes in βII- and βIII isotype gene expression in development of taxane resistance. As model of breast cancer we used human sensitive cell lines SK-BR-3, MCF-7 a T47-D and resistant sublines SK-BR-3-PAC/REZ a MCF-7- PAC/REZ which grow in paclitaxel concentration lethal for sensitive sublines. In cell lines SK-BR-3 and MCF-7, taxane application decreased the level of autophagy, however in cell line T47-D led to its activation. We detected no difference between basal levels of autophagy in sensitive subline SK-BR-3 compared to resistant subline SK-BR-3-PAC/REZ, but we observed increased basal level of autophagy in sensitive subline MCF-7 compared to the resistant subline. Increase or decrease level of autophagy did not affect taxane resistance, except activation of autophagy in resistant subline SK-BR-3-PAC/REZ, that further increased the resistance to paclitaxel. Taxane application in cell line T47-D increased the levels of βII- and βIII-tubuline expression, however we did not find any similar effect in other tested...

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Despite significant progress in the development of anti-cancer drugs, there is still a need for novel therapeutic strategies that would improve the outcome of cancer patients. Using proteomic technologies and cell lines with different phenotype of p53 tumour suppressor, we monitored cancer cell response to anti-cancer treatment with focus on the development of drug resistance. The different levels of metabolic proteins were identified in our study which may help to explain different anti-cancer activity of drugs with only a subtle difference in structure. More importantly, proteins associated with the development of drug resistance were identified and such expression changes have become a focus of interest. Our findings demonstrate a higher protein level of serine hydroxymethyltransferase, serpin B5 and calretinin in cancer cells resistant to Aurora kinase inhibitors. Such proteins promote the tumour growth with no apparent impact of p53 phenotype whilst voltage-dependent anion-selective channel protein 2 contributes to the development of resistance only in cells with functional p53 which is accompanied by the decreased level of elongation factor 2. On the other hand, cancer cells with loss of p53 appear to amplify alternative mechanisms such as protection against oxidative stress. The results...