Cytotoxic potentiation of vinblastine and paclitaxel by L-canavanine in human cervical cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma cells

摘要

Background: The non-protein amino acid L-canavanine (L-CAV), found in several plants of the family Fabaceae is an antimetabolite which shows anticancer activity due to its ability to be incorporated into protein in the place of its analogue, L-arginine (L-ARG), leading to the alteration of the 3D conformation of newly synthesised proteins and usually a loss of their function.