Design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of β-carboline derivatives as ABCB1 inhibitors for reversing multidrug resistance

The scarcity of ATP-binding cassette subfamily B member 1 (ABCB1, also known as P-glycoprotein, P-gp) inhibitors suitable for clinical application in improving multidrug resistance (MDR) promotes the development of drugs aimed at reversing MDR. In this work, we reported a comprehensive study for the first time about the reversal activity of β-carboline derivatives on ABCB1-mediated MDR. Among 48 synthesized derivatives, compound K27 significantly increased the sensitivity of ABCB1-mediated MDR SW620/AD300 cells to paclitaxel (PTX) (IC₅₀ = 15.33 ± 5.4 nM, RF = 171.2) and hardly showed toxicity even at a high concentration of 20 μM when used alone. The in vitro studies indicated that compound K27 distinctly enhanced the arresting effect of PTX on the SW620/AD300 cell cycle, thereby inhibiting their proliferation. Mechanistically, compound K27 was confirmed to directly bind to ABCB1 to inhibit efflux function, reducing cellular efflux and ensuring stable intracellular concentration of PTX without affecting ABCB1's normal expression. Importantly, the combination of compound K27 and PTX exhibited potent tumor suppression in vivo without generating toxicity. These results demonstrated that β-carboline compounds represented by compound K27 may be potent ABCB1 inhibitors with considerable potential in effectively reversing ABCB1-mediated MDR, showing promising prospects.

ABCB1/P-gp inhibitors; Antitumor; Multidrug resistance; Paclitaxel; β-carboline.