Inhibition of autophagy results in a reversal of taxol resistance in nasopharyngeal carcinoma by enhancing taxol-induced caspase-dependent apoptosis.

Drug resistance in nasopharyngeal carcinoma remains a major obstacle of clinical therapy. We found that the taxol-resistant cells demonstrated higher basal levels of autophagy than parental cells, which could be inhibited by 3-MA and Beclin-1-siRNA. We further revealed that inhibition of autophagy enhanced taxol-induced caspase-dependent apoptosis, resulted in partial reversal of the acquired taxol resistance in taxol-resistant cells. Our results suggest that the combination of an autophagy inhibitor with taxol may be a promising approach to promote therapeutic efficacy in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma.