Synthesis and biological evaluation of a series of flavone derivatives as potential radioligands for imaging the multidrug resistance-associated protein 1 (ABCC1/MRP1).

Multidrug resistance (MDR) is one of the major problems affecting the treatment of cancer. In vivo visualization and quantification of MDR proteins would be of great value to better select the therapeutic strategy. Six flavone-based compounds were synthesized and evaluated for their cytotoxic activity and MDR-reversing capacity using hMRP1 or hMDR1 overexpressing cell lines for in vitro assays.