Two different regions of P-glycoprotein [corrected] are photoaffinity-labeled by azidopine.

Cells that express P-glycoprotein are resistant to many unrelated anticancer drugs. All evidence suggests that P-glycoprotein is a plasma membrane protein that confers multidrug resistance by actively transporting these cytotoxic drugs out of cells. The objective of our work is to locate drug binding sites on P-glycoprotein. Azidopine is a photoaffinity drug analog that specifically labels P-glycoprotein. To determine the region of P-glycoprotein that binds azidopine, we labeled P-glycoprotein with azidopine and digested the labeled protein into fragments. We then identified the labeled fragments with specific antibodies. We have determined that azidopine labels two different regions of P-glycoprotein: one region is in the amino half of P-glycoprotein, and the other is in the carboxyl half of the protein. Our results suggest that P-glycoprotein contains either two binding sites for azidopine or a single site formed by the two homologous halves of the protein.