Silver nanoparticles modulate ABC transporter activity and enhance chemotherapy in multidrug resistant cancer

Combinations of structurally unrelated anticancer drugs with silver nanoparticles were applied on multidrug resistant (MDR) cancer cells and we observed synergistically enhanced drug efficiency and cytotoxicity for all the tested combinations. We found that silver nanoparticles modulated the ABC transporter activity of MDR cancer cells which accounts for the detected synergistic interactions. We believe that these findings are relevant as silver nanoparticles seem powerful tools to improve chemotherapy of MDR cancer.72