P-glycoprotein targeted nanoscale drug carriers.

Multi-drug resistance (MDR) is a trend whereby tumor cells exposed to one cytotoxic agent develop cross-resistance to a range of structurally and functionally unrelated compounds. P-glycoprotein (P-gp) efflux pump is one of the mostly studied drug carrying processes that shuttle the drugs out of tumor cells. Thus, P-gp inhibitors have attracted a lot of attention as they can stop cancer drugs from being pumped out of target cells with the consumption of ATP. Using quantitive structure activity relationship (QSAR), we have successfully synthesized a series of novel P-gp inhibitors. The obtained dihydropyrroloquinoxalines series were fully characterized and then tested against bacterial and tumor assays with over-expressed P-gps: All compounds were bioactive especially compound 1 c that had enhanced antibacterial activity. Furthermore, these compounds were utilized as targeting vectors to direct drug delivery vehicles such as silica nanoparticles (SNPs) to cancerous Hela cells with over expressed P-gps. Cell uptake studies showed a successful accumulation of these decorated SNPs in tumor cells compared to undecorated SNPs. The results obtained show that dihydropyrroloquinoxalines constitute a promising drug candidate for targeting cancers with MDR.