Chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) is a form of leukaemia derived from the myeloid cell lineage. Imatinib mesylate, the breakpoint cluster region‑abelson murine leukeamia kinase inhibitor, is a specific reagent used in the clinical treatment of CML. The DNA topoisomerase II inhibitor, etoposide, is also employed as a therapeutic, though it is used to a lesser extent. The present study aims to evaluate the effects of CML‑targeted therapy, utilising imatinib mesylate and etoposide in the in vitro treatment of parental sensitive and adriamycin‑resistant CML in the K562 and K562/ADM cell lines, respectively. Preliminary work involved the screening of multidrug resistant (MDR) gene expression, including MDR1, MRP1 and B‑cell lymphoma 2 (BCL‑2) at the mRNA levels. The sensitive and resistant CML cell lines expressed the MRP1 gene, though the sensitive K562 cells expressed low, almost undetectable levels of MDR1 and BCL‑2 genes relative to the K562/ADM cells. Following treatment with imatinib mesylate or etoposide, the IC50 for imatinib mesylate did not differ between the sensitive and resistant cell lines (0.492±0.024 and 0.378±0.029, respectively), indicating that imatinib mesylate is effective in the treatment of CML regardless of cell chemosensitivity. However, the IC50 for etoposide in sensitive K562 cells was markedly lower than that of K562/ADM cells (50.6±16.5 and 194±8.46 µM, respectively), suggesting that the higher expression levels of MDR1 and/or BCL‑2 mRNA in resistant cells may be partially responsible for this effect. This is supported by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick‑end labeling data, whereby a higher percentage of apoptotic cells were found in the sensitive and resistant K562 cells treated with imatinib mesylate (29.3±0.2 and 31.9±16.7%, respectively), whereas etoposide caused significant apoptosis of sensitive K562 cells (18.3±8.35%) relative to K562/ADM cells (5.17±3.3%). In addition, the MDR genes in K562/ADM cells were knocked down by short interfering RNAs. The percentage knockdowns were 15.4% for MRP1, 17.8% for MDR and 30.7% for BCL‑2, which resulted in a non‑significant difference in the half maximal inhibitory concentration value of K562/ADM cells relative to K562 cells upon treatment with etoposide.

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