The glutaminase activity of L- Asparaginase is not required for anticancer activity against ASNS-negative cells

Abstract

L-Asparaginase (L-ASP) is a key component of therapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Its mechanism of action, however, is still poorly understood, in part because of its dual asparaginase and glutaminase activities. Here,we show that L-ASP's glutaminase activity is not always required for the enzyme's anticancer effect. We first used molecular dynamics simulations of the clinically standard Escherichia coli L-ASP to predict what mutated forms could be engineered to retain activity against asparagine but not glutamine. Dynamic mapping of enzyme substrate contacts identifiedQ59 as a promisingmutagenesis target for that purpose. Saturation mutagenesis followed by enzymatic screening identified Q59L as a variant that retains asparaginase activity but shows undetectable glutaminase activity. Unlike wild-type L-ASP, Q59L is inactive against cancer cells that express measurable asparagine synthetase (ASNS). Q59L is potently active, however, against ASNS-negative cells. Those observations indicate that the glutaminase activity of L-ASP is necessary for anticancer activity against ASNS-positive cell types but not ASNS-negative cell types. Because the clinical toxicity of L-ASP is thought to stemfrom its glutaminase activity, these findings suggest the hypothesis that glutaminase-negative variants of L-ASP would provide larger therapeutic indices than wild-type L-ASP for ASNS-negative cancers. © 2014 by The American Society of Hematology.