PEGylated recombinant human arginase as a drug for breast cancer
SL Leung, MK Ho, YM Lam, HY Chow, YH So, YC Leung
Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, and Lo Ka Chung Centre for Natural Anti-Cancer Drug Development, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
 
 
1. rhArg-PEG is highly potent and kills all breast cancer cell lines (including ‘triple-negative’ and highly aggressive metastatic cells) in vitro and in vivo in a receptor-independent manner.
2. rhArg-PEG induces multiple cancer cell death pathways that are cell-line dependent.
3. rhArg-PEG inhibits mTOR, activates AMPK, and induces a novel type of biphasic autophagic response in cancer cells, leading to autophagic cell death.
4. rhArg-PEG kills cancer cells lacking ornithine transcarbamylase and/or argininosuccinate synthetase and inhibits more tumours than arginine deiminase-PEG does. It is a promising personalised medicine.