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Microbial l-methioninase: production, molecular characterization, and therapeutic applications

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Abstract

l-Methioninase is ubiquitous in all organisms except in mammals. It mainly catalyzes the, α, γ-elimination of l-methionine to α-ketobutyrate, methanethiol, and ammonia. Unlike normal cells, methionine dependency was reported as a biochemical phenomenon among various types of cancer cells. Thus, l-methioninase is the universal protocol for triggering the majority of tumor cells. This review is an attempt to briefly describe the occurrence of the biochemical and molecular properties of l-methioninase by a comparative manner to the eukaryotic and prokaryotic source for the maximum exploitation in the therapeutic field. The combination of l-methioninase treatment, gene therapy, and chemotherapeutic drugs clearly explores the various therapeutic aspects of this enzyme. Finally, the perspectives for increasing the therapeutic efficacy of this enzyme were described.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully thank Prof. Dr. S. Izawa, Applied Biology Dep., Kyoto Institute of Technology, Kyoto, for his helpful suggestions and valuable discussions during this work. We thank Dr. S. Abdelazeim, Fukui Institute for Fundamental Chemistry, Kyoto Univ., Japan, for his assistance on the enzyme alignment.

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  1. Ashraf S. El-Sayed

    Present address: Microbiology Department, Faculty of Science, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt

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    El-Sayed, A.S. Microbial l-methioninase: production, molecular characterization, and therapeutic applications. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 86, 445–467 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-009-2303-2

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