Inhibition of Ampicillin-resistance in Bacteria by Modified DNAzymes

To overcome ampicillin-resistance of bacteria which is believed to attribute their endogenous B-lactamase, we designed three 10-23 DNAzymes（Dz1, Dz2. Dz3） targeting the coding region of B-lactamase mRNA and examined their inhibitory capabilities of the ampicillin-resistance of TEM-1 and TEM-3 bacteria. Dz1 was a traditional 10-23 DNAzyme, Dz2 was the mutant of Dz1 by addition of the protected nucleotide to each ann of the enzyme, and Dz3 was a mutant of Dz1 at antisense arms of which phosphorothioate modifications were made. Kinetic analysis, bacterial growth, and β-lactamase activity measurement showed that all the three DNAzymes worked efficiently in vitro and in vivo. A 9 hours bacterial growth inhibition test showed that the inhibition rates of TEM-1 bacteria by Dz1, Dz2, and Dz3 were 27%, 50%, and 29%, respectively. In addition, the inhibition rates of TEM-3 bacteria by those three DNAzymes were found io be 49%, 58%, and 45%, respectively. The current findings suggest that DNAzymes may become potential candidates of alternative inhibitors for bacteria drug-resistance.

Reversing drug resistance in the ovarian carcinoma cell line SKOV3/mdr1 in vitro by antisense oligodeoxynucleotides

Objective To investigate the effect of multidrug resistance gene 1 (mdr1) antisense oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs) on reversing multidrug resistance in the drug resistant ovarian carcinoma cell line SKOV3/mdr1. Methods The ovarian carcinoma cell line SKOV3 transducted with a human multidrug resistance gene (mdr1) served as the drug resistant model (SKOV3/mdr1). The mdr1 antisense ODNs was transfected into SKOV3/mdr1 cells while mediated by lipofectamine. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to measure the expression and the amount of the mdr1 mRNA in the cells. The positive rate and function of the mdr1 gene product P-glycoprotein (Pgp) in the mdr1 antisense ODNs treated SKOV3/mdr1 cells were determined by flow cytometry and rhodamine 123 efflux. Drug resistance in the SKOV3/mdr1 cell line was observed by MTT assay and cell colony culture. Results The mdr1 mRNA level was decreased to about 60% of that of β-actin after mdr1 antisense ODNs treatment. The Pgp positive rate of mdr1 antisense ODNs treated SKOV3/mdr1 cells decreased from 100% to 52.6% (P<0.01). The intracellular rhodamine 123 retention was increased from 9.1% to 33.8% (P<0.01). The chemoresistance to taxol decreased to 58% of SKOV3/mdr1 with mdr1 antisense ODN treatment. Compared with SKOV3/mdr1 cells in the control group, under a certain range of drug concentrations, the number of drug resistance colonies in mdr1 antisense ODNs treated SKOV3/mdr1 cells for taxol and doxorubicin decreased by 8.6±0.8 fold and 3.1±0.6 fold, respectively. Some non-specific functions during oligodeoxyncleotide treatment was also detected. Conclusion mdr1 expression in the SKOV1/mdr1 cell line was partially inhibited after mdr1 antisense ODNs treatment at the mRNA and protein level, increasing the chemotherapy sensitivity of this drug resistant ovarian carcinoma cell line.