Background: Resistance of cancer cells to cytostatics is caused by a number of mechanisms that are often combined. These include reduced cell entry or increased efflux, increased DNA repair, defects of, apoptotic pathways, increased cytostatic degradation as well as elevated levels of intracellular thiols of glutathione and metallothioneins (MT). It has been reported that high concentrations of thiol groups in the cytoplasm bind platinum alkylation derivatives and chemorezistence is due to the transfer of platinum from the cytostatic to MT, which inactivates them.
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