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Lack of asparagine depletion in the cerebrospinal fluid after one intravenous dose of PEG-asparaginase: a window study at initial diagnosis of childhood ALL

Leukemia volume 17, pages 2254–2256 (2003)Cite this article

TO THE EDITOR

L-Asparaginase (ASP) plays a well-established role in the treatment of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). ASP is postulated to exert its antitumor activity by hydrolyzing asparagine (Asn) to aspartic acid and ammonia, thereby depleting the leukemic cells from Asn, leading to impaired protein synthesis and leukemic cell death. ASP may also act by depleting glutamine. Different preparations and ways of administering ASP result in different plasma activities. The half-life of Erwinia-ASP is shorter than that of Escherichia coli-ASP, which is in turn shorter than that of the polyethylene glycol (PEG)-conjugated form of ASP.1 PEG-ASP shows less immune response and a prolonged half-life of 5.7 days compared to 1.3 days for native ASP. These variations are related to differences in the extent of Asn depletion.2

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Acknowledgements

We thank Medac (GmbH, Germany) for the gift of PEG-ASP. We gratefully acknowledge the laboratory of the University Children's Hospital Muenster, Germany, for their technical suport in this study.

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  1. Erasmus MC-University Medical Centre Rotterdam, Sophia Children's Hospital, The Netherlands

    I M Appel, M L den Boer, N C M Reniers & R Pieters

  2. University Children's Hospital, Münster, Germany

    J P V Pinheiro, C Lanvers & J Boos

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  1. I M Appel
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Appel, I., Pinheiro, J., den Boer, M. et al. Lack of asparagine depletion in the cerebrospinal fluid after one intravenous dose of PEG-asparaginase: a window study at initial diagnosis of childhood ALL. Leukemia 17, 2254–2256 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2403143

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