Progress and problems with the use of suicide genes for targeted cancer therapy

Z Karjoo, X Chen, A Hatefi - Advanced drug delivery reviews, 2016 - Elsevier
Among various gene therapy methods for cancer, suicide gene therapy attracts a special
attention because it allows selective conversion of non-toxic compounds into cytotoxic drugs …

Nitroreductase gene-directed enzyme prodrug therapy: insights and advances toward clinical utility

EM Williams, RF Little, AM Mowday, MH Rich… - Biochemical …, 2015 - portlandpress.com
This review examines the vast catalytic and therapeutic potential offered by type I (ie oxygen-
insensitive) nitroreductase enzymes in partnership with nitroaromatic prodrugs, with …

Evolutionary and molecular foundations of multiple contemporary functions of the nitroreductase superfamily

E Akiva, JN Copp, N Tokuriki… - Proceedings of the …, 2017 - National Acad Sciences
Insight regarding how diverse enzymatic functions and reactions have evolved from
ancestral scaffolds is fundamental to understanding chemical and evolutionary biology, and …

Revealing unexplored sequence-function space using sequence similarity networks

JN Copp, E Akiva, PC Babbitt, N Tokuriki - Biochemistry, 2018 - ACS Publications
The rapidly expanding number of protein sequences found in public databases can improve
our understanding of how protein functions evolve. However, our current knowledge of …

Enzyme/prodrug systems for cancer gene therapy

OM Malekshah, X Chen, A Nomani, S Sarkar… - Current pharmacology …, 2016 - Springer
The use of enzyme/prodrug system has gained attention because it could help improve the
efficacy and safety of conventional cancer chemotherapies. In this approach, cancer cells …

Azoreductases in drug metabolism

A Ryan - British Journal of Pharmacology, 2017 - Wiley Online Library
Azoreductases are flavoenzymes that have been characterized in a range of prokaryotes
and eukaryotes. Bacterial azoreductases are associated with the activation of two classes of …

Engineering a multifunctional nitroreductase for improved activation of prodrugs and PET probes for cancer gene therapy

JN Copp, AM Mowday, EM Williams, CP Guise… - Cell Chemical …, 2017 - cell.com
Gene-directed enzyme-prodrug therapy (GDEPT) is a promising anti-cancer strategy.
However, inadequate prodrugs, inefficient prodrug activation, and a lack of non-invasive …

NTR 2.0: a rationally engineered prodrug-converting enzyme with substantially enhanced efficacy for targeted cell ablation

AV Sharrock, TS Mulligan, KR Hall, EM Williams… - Nature …, 2022 - nature.com
Transgenic expression of bacterial nitroreductase (NTR) enzymes sensitizes eukaryotic cells
to prodrugs such as metronidazole (MTZ), enabling selective cell-ablation paradigms that …

Escherichia coli NemA Is an Efficient Chromate Reductase That Can Be Biologically Immobilized to Provide a Cell Free System for Remediation of Hexavalent …

KJ Robins, DO Hooks, BHA Rehm, DF Ackerley - PloS one, 2013 - journals.plos.org
Hexavalent chromium is a serious and widespread environmental pollutant. Although many
bacteria have been identified that can transform highly water-soluble and toxic Cr (VI) to …

Single-and two-electron reduction of nitroaromatic compounds by flavoenzymes: Mechanisms and implications for cytotoxicity

N Čėnas, A Nemeikaitė-Čėnienė… - International journal of …, 2021 - mdpi.com
Nitroaromatic compounds (ArNO2) maintain their importance in relation to industrial
processes, environmental pollution, and pharmaceutical application. The manifestation of …