Novel function of N,N-bis(2-chloroethyl)docos-13-enamide for reversal of multidrug resistance in tongue cancer

Multidrug resistance (MDR) is a key element in the failure of chemotherapies, and development of agents to overcome MDR is crucial to improving cancer treatments. The overexpression of glutathione-S-transferases (GSTs) is one of the major mechanisms of MDR. Because some agents used in traditional Chinese medicine have strong antitumor effects coupled with low toxicity; we investigated the ability of N,N-bis(2-chloroethyl)docos-13-enamide (compound J), the synthesized analog of a highly unsaturated fatty acid from Isatis tinctoria L., to reverse the MDR induced by adriamycin (ADM) in TCA8113/ADM cells. We found that compound J significantly increased the cytotoxicity of ADM in TCA8113/ADM cells, with a reversal fold of 2.461. Analysis of the mechanisms through which compound J reversed MDR indicated that compound J significantly decreased the activity of GSTs and enhanced the depletion of GSH in TCA8113/ADM cells, but did not affect the P-glycoprotein (P-gp) efflux. Taken together, our data suggested that compound J was an excellent candidate for reversing MDR in cancer therapy.