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Overexpression And Partial Purification Of Recombinant Human Serine Hydroxymethyltransferase: A Potential Anticancer Target, Suprit Singh Deol

Chemistry and Biochemistry

Serine Hydroxymethyltransferase (SHMT) is a member of the thymidylate synthase cycle that provides pyrimidine nucleotides to actively dividing cells, including cancer cells. The other two enzymes involved in this cycle have been targets for clinical anticancer drugs, suggesting that inhibitors of SHMT may also be used as clinical anticancer drugs. In order to test potential inhibitors against SHMT, human SHMT has been overexpressed in E. coli and partially purified by selective ammonium sulfate fractionation followed by anion-exchange fast protein liquid chromatography. A coupled assay using L-allo-threonine and alcohol dehydrogenase was used to identify active fractions, which were analyzed …