Abstract
Summary
Asparaginase, injected in conventional therapeutic doses into mice previously inoculated with the lactate dehydrogenase-elevating virus (LDH-virus), disappeared from the peripheral blood at a significantly slower rate than in corresponding virus-free mice. Direct testing of the transplanted tumors and leukemias employed in the earlier studies on the antitumor properties of asparaginase have indicated that the virus, was unknowingly present. The evidence indicates that the virus, through its impairment of host enzyme clearance and possibly other factors, played a significant role in the observed therapeutic effects of EC-2 l-asparaginase against sensitive mouse leukemia and lymphosarcoma.
We thank J. D. Loveless, M. A. Fitzmaurice, and Edith R. Shapiro for assistance.
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