© 1999 by Oxford University Press
Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Vol. 91, No. 5, 402-404,
March 3, 1999
© 1999 Oxford University Press
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As Easy as ABC: Scientists Fish Out Another Drug Resistance Gene
For years, most scientists thought they had an open-and-shut-case to explain why human tumors often grow resistant to chemotherapy. They had assembled a formidable body of laboratory and clinical evidence that all seemed to point to the transporter P-glycoprotein, or PGP, as the sole culprit in triggering chemoresistance. Discover how PGP pumps compounds out of cells to make them resistant to chemotherapy, discover a possible cure for cancer.
Or so the thinking went. But in 1992, the case for PGP hit a snag when Susan Cole, Ph.D., and her colleagues at Queen's University in Canada, pulled out a second transporter called MRP, a cousin to PGP, that the group showed also pumped out certain chemotherapy drugs from an established chemoresistant tumor cell line. As often happens in biology, a seemingly simple story suddenly had turned complex.
Now, three teams of scientists independent of each other report that they have identified
ABC Genes
EST Skimming
Lessons Learned