Abstract
Multidrug resistance (MDR) is a major obstacle in the clinical therapy of hematological malignancies. P-glycoprotein (P-gp) overexpression results in reduction of intracellular drug concentration with a consequence that the cytotoxicity of anti-tumor drugs is decreased, which leads to MDR in K562/ADR cells. In this study, we found that resveratrol enhanced the anti-proliferative activity of bestatin in K562/ADR cells. Co-treatment with resveratrol, IC50 values of bestatin in K562/ADR cells significantly decreased and activation of caspase-3 and caspase-8 increased, which indicated that resveratrol potentiated bestatin-induced apoptosis. Resveratrol increased the intracellular concentration of bestatin through inhibiting P-gp function and downregulating P-gp expression at mRNA and protein levels, which increased anti-proliferative activity of bestatin in K562/ADR cells. Resveratrol decreased the phosphorylation of Akt and mTOR but did not affect the phosphorylations of JNK or ERK1/2. These results demonstrated that resveratrol could increase the anti-proliferative activity of bestatin through downregulating P-gp expression via suppressing the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway.