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Regrowth resistance in platinum-drug resistant small cell lung cancer cells

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / The H69CIS200 cisplatin-resistant and H69OX400 oxaliplatin-resistant cell lines developed as part of this study, are novel models of low-level platinum resistance. These resistant cell lines do not have common mechanisms of platinum resistance such as increased expression of glutathione or decreased platinum accumulation. Rather, these cell lines have alterations in their cell cycle allowing them to proliferate rapidly post drug treatment in a process known as ‘regrowth resistance’. This alteration in cell cycle control has come at the expense of DNA repair capacity. The resistant cell lines show a decrease in nucleotide excision repair and homologous recombination repair, the reverse of what is normally associated with platinum resistance. The alterations in these DNA repair pathways help signal the G1/S checkpoint to allow the cell cycle to progress despite the presence of DNA damage. The decrease in DNA repair capacity has also contributed to the development of chromosomal alterations in the resistant cell lines. Similarities in chromosomal change between the two platinum resistant cell lines have been attributed to inherent vulnerabilities in the parental H69 cells rather than part of the mechanism of resistance. The H69CIS200 and H69OX400 resistant cells are cross-resistant to both cisplatin and oxaliplatin. This demonstrates that oxaliplatin does not have increased activity in low-level cisplatin-resistant cancer. Oxaliplatin resistance also developed more rapidly than cisplatin resistance suggesting that oxaliplatin may be less effective than cisplatin in the treatment of SCLC. The resistant cell lines have also become hypersensitive to taxol but show no alterations in the expression, polymerisation or morphology of tubulin. Rather, the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway is involved in both platinum resistance and taxol sensitivity as both are reversed with rapamycin treatment. mTOR is also phosphorylated in the resistant cell lines indicating that platinum resistance is associated with an increase in activity of this pathway. The mechanism of regrowth resistance in the platinum-resistant H69CIS200 and H69OX400 cells is a combination of activation of PI3K/Akt/mTOR signalling and alterations in control of the G1/S cell cycle checkpoint. However, more work remains to determine which factors in these pathways are governing this novel mechanism of platinum resistance.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/181631
Date January 2007
CreatorsStordal, Britta Kristina
PublisherBill Walsh Cancer Research Laboratories, Royal North Shore Hospital and The University of Sydney.
Source SetsAustraliasian Digital Theses Program
Detected LanguageEnglish
RightsThe author retains copyright of this thesis., http://www.library.usyd.edu.au/copyright.html

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