The platinum drugs cisplatin, carboplatin, and oxaliplatin are highly utilized in the clinic and as a consequence are extensively studied in the laboratory setting. In this study, we examined the literature and found a significant number of studies (11%-34%) in prominent cancer journals utilizing cisplatin dissolved in DMSO. However, dissolving cisplatin in DMSO for laboratory-based studies results in ligand displacement and changes to the structure of the complex. We examined the effect of DMSO on platinum complexes, including cisplatin, carboplatin, and oxaliplatin, finding that DMSO reacted with the complexes, inhibited their cytotoxicity and their ability to initiate cell death. These results render a substantial portion of the literature on cisplatin uninterpretable. Raising awareness of this significant issue in the cancer biology community is critical, and we make recommendations on appropriate solvation of platinum drugs for research.

Resistance to platinum-based therapies arises by multiple mechanisms, including by alterations to cell-cycle kinases that mediate G(2)-M phase arrest. In this study, we conducted parallel high-throughput screens for microRNAs (miRNA) that could restore sensitivity to cisplatin-resistant cells, and we screened for kinases targeted by miRNAs that mediated cisplatin resistance. Overexpression of the cell-cycle kinases WEE1 and CHK1 occurred commonly in cisplatin-resistant cells. miRNAs in the miR-15/16/195/424/497 family were found to sensitize cisplatin-resistant cells to apoptosis by targeting WEE1 and CHK1. Loss-of-function and gain-of-function studies showed that miR-15 family members controlled the expression of WEE1 and CHK1. Supporting these results, we found that in the presence of cisplatin altering expression of miR-16 or related genes altered cell cycle distribution. Our findings reveal critical regulation of miRNAs and their cell-cycle-associated kinase targets in mediating resistance to cisplatin.

Cancer multidrug resistance (MDR) mediated by ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters presents a significant unresolved clinical challenge. One strategy to resolve MDR is to develop compounds that selectively kill cells overexpressing the efflux transporter P-glycoprotein (MDR1, P-gp, ABCB1). We have previously reported structure-activity studies based around the lead compound NSC73306 (1, 1-isatin-4-(4'-methoxyphenyl)-3-thiosemicarbazone, 4.3-fold selective). Here we sought to extend this work on MDR1-selective analogues by establishing whether 1 showed "robust" activity against a range of cell lines expressing P-gp. We further aimed to synthesize and test analogues with varied substitution at the N4-position, and substitution around the N4-phenyl ring of isatin-β-thiosemicarbazones (IBTs), to identify compounds with increased MDR1-selectivity. Compound 1 demonstrated MDR1-selectivity against all P-gp-expressing cell lines examined. This selectivity was reversed by inhibitors of P-gp ATPase activity. Structural variation at the 4'-phenyl position of 1 yielded compounds of greater MDR1-selectivity. Two of these analogues, 1-isatin-4-(4'-nitrophenyl)-3-thiosemicarbazone (22, 8.3-fold selective) and 1-isatin-4-(4'-tert-butyl phenyl)-3-thiosemicarbazone (32, 14.8-fold selective), were selected for further testing and were found to retain the activity profile of 1. These compounds are the most active IBTs identified to date.

The efflux pump P-glycoprotein (ATP-binding cassette B1, multidrug resistance [MDR] 1, P-gp) has long been known to contribute to MDR against cancer chemotherapeutics. We describe the development of a dual-fluorescent cell line system to allow multiplexing of drug-sensitive and P-gp-mediated MDR cell lines. The parental OVCAR-8 human ovarian carcinoma cell line and the isogenic MDR NCI/ADR-RES subline, which stably expresses high levels of endogenous P-gp, were transfected to express the fluorescent proteins Discosoma sp. red fluorescent protein DsRed2 and enhanced green fluorescent protein, respectively. Co-culture conditions were defined, and fluorescent barcoding of each cell line allowed for the direct, simultaneous comparison of resistance to cytotoxic compounds in sensitive and MDR cell lines. We show that this assay system retains the phenotypes of the original lines and is suitable for multiplexing using confocal microscopy, flow cytometry, or laser scanning microplate cytometry in 1,536-well plates, enabling the high-throughput screening of large chemical libraries.