Gene expression and pathway analysis of ovarian cancer cells selected for resistance to cisplatin, paclitaxel, or doxorubicin

Abstract Background Resistance to current chemotherapeutic agents is a major cause of therapy failure in ovarian cancer patients, but the exact mechanisms leading to the development of drug resistance remain unclear. Methods To better understand mechanisms of drug resistance, and possibly identify novel targets for therapy, we generated a series of drug resistant ovarian cancer cell lines through repeated exposure to three chemotherapeutic drugs (cisplatin, doxorubicin, or paclitaxel), and identified changes in gene expression patterns using Illumina whole-genome expression microarrays. Validation of selected genes was performed by RT-PCR and immunoblotting. Pathway enrichment analysis using the KEGG, GO, and Reactome databases was performed to identify pathways that may be important in each drug resistance phenotype. Results A total of 845 genes (p Conclusions Ovarian cancer cells develop drug resistance through different pathways depending on the drug used in the generation of chemoresistance. A better understanding of these mechanisms may lead to the development of novel strategies to circumvent the problem of drug resistance.