Molecules: Scientists have discovered a new inhibitor that can fight cancer cells resistant to chemotherapy

Recently, researchers from Martin Luther Haller Wittenberg University (MLU) and Graveswald University in Germany have developed a new inhibitor that can make drug-resistant tumor cells respond to chemotherapy again.

In addition to radiation therapy, cytotoxic drugs (ie chemotherapy) are also often used to treat cancer.

Hilgeroth's research team has now developed a new class of substances that can inhibit one of these transport proteins: multidrug resistance protein 4 (MRP4).

Hilgeroth explained that the new substances may have two positive effects at the same time: “stop the transmission of cancer-promoting messengers and ensure that chemotherapy is effective again.

Now, the compound's efficacy must be confirmed in further preclinical trials.

Original source: Henry Döring et al, Discovery of Novel Symmetrical 1,4-Dihydropyridines as Inhibitors of Multidrug-Resistant Protein (MRP4) Efflux Pump for Anticancer Therapy, Molecules (2020).