Freezing-Assisted Intracellular Drug Delivery to Multi-Drug Resistant Cancer Cells

The efficacy of chemotherapy is significantly impaired by multi-drug resistance (MDR) of cancer cells. The mechanism of MDR is associated with the overexpression of certain ATP-binding cassette protein transporters in plasma membranes. These transporters actively keep intracellular drug concentration below the cell-killing threshold by extruding cytotoxic drugs. Various strategies to overcome MDR have been proposed and have shown promising results at the laboratory level. However, pharmacokinetic alteration of co-administered anticancer agents reduces their clinical effectiveness. This leads to increased toxicity and undesirable side effects at effective concentrations [1]. Hence, a clinically feasible strategy to overcome the phenomenon of MDR is highly desired.