Tumor-killing Guinea Pig enzyme finally characterized, 60 years later



After a 1953 paper revealed that guinea pig serum could kill tumor cells through L-asparaginase activity, several bacterial L-aspariginases were developed as FDA-approved drugs to treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and other cancers. However, side effects persist due to off-target glutaminase activity and immunogenicity, so researchers recently went back to the original source: the guinea pig. 60 years after that first report, they've now characterized a guinea pig enzyme they say should replace currently-used cancer drugs;

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