Abstract

Malfunctions in membrane transporters or disruptions in signaling cascades induce resistance to chemotherapy in cancer cells resulting in treatment failure. To adjust the genetic alterations leading to these cellular protective measures, dissection and verification of the contributing routes would be required. In justification of knockdown of the key genes, RNA interference provides a reliable probing tool, enabling exploration of phenotypic manifestation of targeted genes. Investigation of the non-transporter targets, predominantly oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, by means of small interfering RNA with the aim to re-sensitize cancer cells to therapeutics will be discussed in this review.

Keywords: Akt, Bcl-2, cancer, chemoresistance, Her2, MAPK, oncogene, p53, survivin, targeted therapy, tumor suppressor.

Graphical Abstract