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Histidine metabolism boosts cancer therapy

Clinical use of the anticancer drug methotrexate can be limited by its high toxicity. It emerges that a diet rich in the amino acid histidine increases the effectiveness of methotrexate treatment and lowers toxicity in mice.
  1. Christian Frezza

    1. Christian Frezza is at the MRC Cancer Unit, University of Cambridge, Hutchison/MRC Research Centre, Cambridge CB2 0XZ, UK.

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Methotrexate was one of the first approved anticancer drugs, and is a cornerstone of modern chemotherapy for the treatment of certain solid tumours and blood cancers. However, this therapy must often be stopped prematurely because of its high toxicity in patients’ healthy cells. Writing in Nature, Kanarek et al.1 report that degradation of the amino acid histidine can increase the sensitivity of cancer cells to methotrexate, and the results suggest that this approach can also help to lower the side effects of methotrexate treatment in mouse models.

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Nature 559, 484-485 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-05573-4

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