Investigation of the genes MDR1/MRP1 and their relationship with clinical and para-clinical characteristics of colorectal cancer

ABSTRACT

Resistance to wide range of structurally and functionally different chemotherapy drugs acts as a major obstacle in the cancer therapy. There are different mechanisms that cause multi drug resistance [MDR] but the most important one is ATP Binding Cassette [ABC] transporters super-family that increases the ability of tumor cells to transport drugs out of the cells by using ATP molecule, over expression of these proteins such as MDR1 and MRP1 is responsible for MDR phenotype in cancerous cells. We analyzed the expression level of MDR1/MRP1genes by using Real time RT-PCR in 60 colorectal cancer patients also we investigate their relationship with clinical, Para-clinical characterizes of colorectal cancer patients and their responses to treatment. The expression of the MDR1 gene showed a significant increase in cancerous regions compared to adjacent normal tissue. In addition the expression of MDR1 gene showed association with histological grade of tumors but expression level of MRP1 was not significantly important. Our study once more emphasizes the effects of MDR1 over expression which impact on response to drugs in Iranian colorectal cancer patients