Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0019204 (hepatocellular carcinoma)
 71,386 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Arginine deiminase (EC 3.5.3.6) was purified to homogeneity from the cell extract of Mycoplasma arginini by molecular-sieve, anion-exchange and arginine-affinity chromatographies. The purified enzyme was composed of 2 identical sub-units with a molecular weight of 45.000 and had a pI of 4.7. Its Vmax value and Km value for L-arginine were estimated to be 50 units/mg protein and 0.2 mM, respectively. It exerted maximal enzyme activity at pH 6.0-7.5 and at 50 degrees C. The arginine deiminase was stable at neutral pH. When injected i.v. into mice, the half-life of the arginine deiminase in blood was about 4 hr. In culture, the enzyme strongly inhibited the growth of 6 kinds of mouse tumor cell lines by depleting L-arginine in the culture media. When the in vivo growth-inhibitory activity of arginine deiminase was tested for the 6 tumor cell lines, i.p. administration of the purified enzyme effectively prolonged the survival time of the mice injected with all kinds of the tumor cell lines. Especially, the in vivo growth of a hepatoma cell line, MH134, was completely prevented by the daily administration at a dose of 0.2 mg/mouse for 14 days. These results raise the possibility of the use of the arginine deiminase derived from Mycoplasma arginini as a new anti-tumor drug.
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PMID:In vivo anti-tumor activity of arginine deiminase purified from Mycoplasma arginini. 156 92

Extracts of five arginine-utilizing mycoplasmas inhibit PHA-induced lymphocyte mitosis, while extracts of five glucose-utilizing mycoplasmas do not. Evidence is presented supporting the view that the inhibitory factor is the enzyme arginine deiminase. This enzyme inhibits the reactions of human lymphocytes to antigens as well as PHA, and the secondary production of antibody by rabbit lymph node fragments in vitro. Addition of enzyme to the cells several days after the initial mitotic or antigenic stimulus reduces, but does not abolish, further cellular activity. The production of serum proteins by hepatoma cells is totally unaffected by the mycoplasmal extract. It is concluded that arginine is an essential amino acid for the small lymphocyte, but not for the transformed cell nor for a number of other cell types. Suggestive evidence has been obtained that other enzymes similarly affect lymphocyte reactions.
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PMID:Studies of PPLO infection. V. Inhibition of lymphocyte mitosis and antibody formation by mycoplasmal extracts. 430 41

Two kinds of arginine deiminase (AD, EC 3.5.3.6) were purified from cell extracts of Mycoplasma arginini (a-AD) and Mycoplasma hominis (h-AD), and their enzymic properties and anti-tumor activities were compared. The a-AD enzyme strongly inhibited the growth of mouse hepatoma cell line MH134 in vitro, and its concentration required for 50% growth inhibition (IC50) was estimated to be about 10 ng/ml. The IC50 value of h-AD against the same cell line was estimated to be about 100 ng/ml, due to its low enzyme activity under the physiological pH condition, i.e., pH 7.4. These results show that the reaction pH profile of the a-AD was superior to that of the h-AD as an anti-tumor enzyme. Moreover, the effects of L-arginine metabolism-related substances on the anti-tumor activity of the a-AD were examined to study the growth-inhibitory mechanism of this enzyme. The addition of 2 or 4 mM L-arginine restored, in a dose-dependent manner, the growth of mouse MH134 hepatoma and Meth A fibrosarcoma cell lines that had been inhibited by 20 ng/ml of the a-AD. The addition of 2 or 4 mM L-ornithine, which is biosynthesized from L-arginine in the urea cycle and is the starting material in the polyamine-biosynthesis pathway, also partially restored it in a dose-dependent manner. These results indicate that the tumor cell growth inhibition caused by a-AD originates from the depletion of the essential nutrient L-arginine, and that the resulting block of the polyamine-biosynthesis pathway is involved in part in the inhibitory mechanism.
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PMID:Anti-tumor activity of arginine deiminase from Mycoplasma argini and its growth-inhibitory mechanism. 759 61

The arginine deiminase (AD) gene was cloned from Mycoplasma arginini and expressed in the cytosol of Escherichia coli as inclusion bodies with an expression level of at least 20% of the total bacterial proteins. The inclusion bodies were solubilized with 6 M guanidine hydrochloride (Gdn-HCl) under reducing conditions, in order to avoid incorrect disulfide-bond formation of the recombinant (r-) AD molecules, and renaturation was performed under various refolding conditions. The optimum renaturation conditions were found to be incubation for 90 h at pH 7.5 and 15 degrees C. The resulting completely refolded r-AD was purified to homogeneity by anion-exchange and arginine-affinity chromatography and its activity yield was 72.5%. The specific activity of the purified r-AD was comparable to and its amino acid composition was identical to those of Mycoplasma AD, and NH2-terminal sequence analysis revealed that its methionine residue corresponding to the translation initiation codon had been removed completely. Anti-tumor activity analyses showed that r-AD inhibited the growth of two mouse cell lines, hepatoma MH134 and fibrosarcoma Meth A, strongly in vitro at concentrations in excess of 10 ng ml-1. Moreover, when MH134-implanted mice were given single intravenous injections of r-AD at doses of 50 mg kg-1 and higher, their survival times were prolonged significantly. These results, taken together, indicate that the enzymatic properties and biological actions of r-AD were highly consistent with those of Mycoplasma AD.
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PMID:High-level expression of Mycoplasma arginine deiminase in Escherichia coli and its efficient renaturation as an anti-tumor enzyme. 776 34

Amino acid-degrading enzymes are known to inhibit the growth of tumor cells in culture by depleting amino acids in the medium. Here we demonstrate that arginine deiminase (EC 3.5.3.6) from Mycoplasma arginini had stronger growth-inhibitory activity against all 4 kinds of tumor cell lines tested than L-asparaginase and arginase, which are well-known anti-tumor enzymes. Next, chemical modification of the arginine deiminase molecule with polyethylene glycol was shown to enhance its potency as an anti-tumor enzyme. The percentage of modified amino groups per molecule was estimated to be 51% of the total amino groups, and the average molecular weight was estimated to be about 400,000 by gel-filtration HPLC. The enzymic activity of the modified enzyme was 25.5 units/mg protein, which was equivalent to 57% of that of the native enzyme. The modified enzyme strongly inhibited growth of a mouse hepatoma cell line, MH134, at a concentration of more than 10 ng/ml, showing almost the same dose-response curve as the native enzyme. When a bolus of 5 units of the modified enzyme was intravenously injected into male BDF1 mice, L-arginine in the blood completely disappeared within 5 min, and remained undetectable for more than 8 days. On the other hand, in the case of bolus injection of the same number of units of native enzyme, the plasma L-arginine level recovered up to 66% of the control level at 8 days. These results suggest that this modified enzyme has a longer plasma clearance time and may be more effective as a new anti-tumor agent than the native enzyme.
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PMID:Chemical modification by polyethylene glycol of the anti-tumor enzyme arginine deiminase from Mycoplasma arginini. 827 24

Some murine melanomas and hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) have been shown to be auxotrophic for arginine. Arginine deiminase (ADI; EC 3.5.3.6.), an arginine-degrading enzyme isolated from Mycoplasma, can inhibit growth of these tumors. We found that ADI was specific for arginine and did not degrade other amino acids. Although arginine is not an essential amino acid for most cells, all human melanomas and HCCs tested were found to be inhibited by ADI in vitro. Arginine is synthesized from citrulline in two steps by argininosuccinate synthetase and argininosuccinate lyase. Melanomas and HCCs did not express argininosuccinate synthetase mRNA but did express argininosuccinate lyase mRNA, suggesting that the arginine auxotrophy of these cells was a result of an inability to produce argininosuccinate synthetase. Human melanomas and HCCs were transfected with an expression plasmid containing argininosuccinate synthetase cDNA. The transfected cells were much more resistant to ADI than the parental cells in vitro and in vivo. Initial attempts to use ADI in vivo indicated that this enzyme had little efficacy, consistent with its short circulation half-life. Formulation of ADI with polyethylene glycol to produce ADI-SS PEG(20,000 mw) resulted in an enzyme with a much longer circulation half-life that, and although equally effective in vitro, was more efficacious in the treatment of mice implanted with human melanomas and HCCs. These data indicate that sensitivity of melanoma and HCC is due to the absence of argininosuccinate synthetase in these cells and that an effective formulation of ADI, which causes a sustained decrease in arginine, may be a useful treatment for arginine auxotrophic tumors including melanoma and HCC.
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PMID:Pegylated arginine deiminase (ADI-SS PEG20,000 mw) inhibits human melanomas and hepatocellular carcinomas in vitro and in vivo. 1235 51

Pheonix is developing ADI-PEG-20, a PEGylated arginine deiminase for the potential treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma, for which the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products have granted the drug Orphan Drug status, and melanoma, for which the FDA has also awarded ADI-PEG-20 Orphan Drug status. ADI-PEG-20 is also being investigated for the potential treatment of influenza virus infection and hepatitis C virus infection.
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PMID:Drug evaluation: ADI-PEG-20--a PEGylated arginine deiminase for arginine-auxotrophic cancers. 1677 44

Pegylated arginine deiminase (ADI-PEG20) is a novel anticancer enzyme that produces depletion of arginine, which is a nonessential amino acid in humans. Certain tumours, such as malignant melanoma and hepatocellular carcinoma, are auxotrophic for arginine. These tumours that are sensitive to arginine depletion do not express argininosuccinate synthetase, a key enzyme in the synthesis of arginine from citrulline. ADI-PEG20 inhibits human melanomas and hepatocellular carcinomas in vitro and in vivo. Phase I - II trials in patients with melanoma and hepatocellular carcinomas have shown the drug to have antitumour activity and tolerable side effects. Large Phase II trials and randomised, controlled Phase III trials are needed to determine its overall efficacy in the treatment of these malignancies and others.
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PMID:Pegylated arginine deiminase: a novel anticancer enzyme agent. 1678 44

Recently, pegylated arginine deiminase (ADI; EC 3.5.3.6) has been used to treat the patients with hepatocellular carcinoma or melanoma, in which the level of argininosuccinate synthetase (ASS) activity is low or undetectable. The efficacy of its antitumor activity largely depends on the level of intracellular ASS, which enables tumor cells to recycle citrulline to arginine. Thus, we examined the expression levels of ASS in various cancer cells and found that it is low in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) cells, rendering the cells highly sensitive to arginine deprivation by ADI treatment. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed that in biopsy specimens from RCC patients (n = 98), the expression of ASS is highly demonstrated in the epithelium of normal proximal tubule but not seen in tumor cells. Furthermore, RCC cells treated with ADI showed remarkable growth retardation in a dose dependent manner. ADI also exerted in vivo antiproliferative effect on the allografted renal cell carcinoma (RENCA) tumor cells and prolonged the survival of tumor-bearing mice. Histological examination of the tumors revealed that tumor angiogenesis and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression were significantly diminished by ADI administration. Therefore, these findings suggest that arginine deprivation by ADI could provide a beneficial strategy for the treatment of RCC in ways of inhibitions of arginine availability and neovascularization.
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PMID:Renal cell carcinoma does not express argininosuccinate synthetase and is highly sensitive to arginine deprivation via arginine deiminase. 1709 30

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is believed to be auxotrophic for arginine through the lack of expression of argininosuccinate synthetase (ASS). The successful use of the arginine-depleting enzyme arginine deiminase (ADI) to treat ASS-deficient tumors has opened up new possibilities for effective cancer therapy. Nevertheless, many ASS-positive HCC cell lines are found to be resistant to ADI treatment, although most require arginine for proliferation. Thus far, an arginine-depleting enzyme for killing ASS-positive tumors has not been reported. Here, we provide direct evidence that recombinant human arginase (rhArg) inhibits ASS-positive HCCs. All the five human HCC cell lines we used were sensitive to rhArg but ADI had virtually no effect on these cells. They all expressed ASS, but not ornithine transcarbamylase (OTC), the enzyme that converts ornithine, the product of degradation of arginine with rhArg, to citrulline, which is converted back to arginine via ASS. Transfection of HCC cells with OTC resulted in resistance to rhArg. Thus, OTC expression alone may be sufficient to induce rhArg resistance in ASS-positive HCC cells. This surprising correlation between the lack of OTC expression and sensitivity of ASS-positive HCC cells shows that OTC-deficient HCCs are sensitive to rhArg-mediated arginine depletion. Therefore, pretreatment tumor gene expression profiling of ASS and OTC could aid in predicting tumor response to arginine depletion with arginine-depleting enzymes. We have also shown that the rhArg native enzyme and the pegylated rhArg (rhArg-peg(5,000mw)) gave similar anticancer efficacy in vitro. Furthermore, the growth of the OTC-deficient Hep3B tumor cells (ASS-positive and ADI-resistant) in mice was inhibited by treatment with rhArg-peg(5,000mw), which is active alone and is synergistic in combination with 5-fluorouracil. Thus, our data suggest that rhArg-peg(5,000mw) is a novel agent for effective cancer therapy.
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PMID:Pegylated recombinant human arginase (rhArg-peg5,000mw) inhibits the in vitro and in vivo proliferation of human hepatocellular carcinoma through arginine depletion. 1721 Jul 12


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