Purpose: To evaluate the anticancer activity of an enzyme, methioninase, obtained from a soil isolate,
Serratia marcescens
, against Dalton’s lymphoma ascitic (DLA) and Ehrlich ascitic carcinoma (EAC) in Swiss albino mice.
Methods: Cancer was induced using DLA and EAC cells in Swiss albino mice by intraperitoneal injection. The mice were then treated with 10 and 20 mg/kg body weight of methioninase; 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) was used as standard.
Results: The results showed good improvement in haematological parameters, improvement serum enzymes and lipid profile, as well as increase in life span by up to 77 %, increase in body weight (p < 0.01), decrease in cancer cell count from (2.70 ± 0.40) × 10
6 to (1.86 ± 0.30) × 10
6 cells/ml compared to (2.70 ± 0.40) × 10
6 to (1.42 ± 0.25) x 10
6 cells/ml for the group treated with 5-FU. Solid tumor volume decreased from 5.82 ± 0.15 to 4.10 ± 0.11 ml as as against a decrease from 5.82 ± 0.40 to 3.56 ± 0.28 for the group treated with 5-FU.
Conclusion: The isolated enzyme, methioninase, has a good anti-cancer activity and needs to be further be investigated for this activity.
