METHOD OF INHIBITING ACTIVITY OF ADENYLSUSSCINATE SYNTHETHASE IN CELLS DEVOID OF METHYLTHIOADENOSIN PHOSPHORYLASE

摘要

An in vivo method for depleting mammalian cells of adenosine 5'-monophosphate (AMP) useful in the treatment of certain cancers is provided. According to the method, a population of cells is obtained from a host and assayed for loss of methylthioadenosine phosphorylase (MTAse) activity. MTAse catabolizes methylthioadenosine to adenine for endogenous salvage incorporation into the intracellular AMP pool. The preferred method for assaying loss of MTAse activity is a hybridization technique for detection of a homozygous loss of the gene which encodes MTAse. Hosts having MTAse deficient tumors are treated with a therapeutically effective amount of an agent which inhibits the activity of adenylsuccinate synthetase, which converts inosine 5'-monophosphate to AMP, thus depleting the tumor cells of substrates for de novo AMP production. L-alanosine is the preferred ASS inhibitory agent for use in the method of the invention.