Application Brief 1027: ASNS NanoPro Assay

The enzyme-drug, L-asparaginase, has been used since the 1970s to treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Asparagine synthetase (ASNS) expression has been found to be correlated with L-asparaginase efficacy in leukemia cell lines, in leukemia primary tumor samples, and more recently, in cancer cell lines from other tissues of origin. Silencing ASNS expression by RNAi has indicated the L-asparaginase/ASNS relationship is causal and suggests that ASNS expression may be useful as a predictive clinical biomarker of L-asparaginase efficacy. ASNS presents as a single peak in the NanoPro assay. Expected changes of expression are observed upon siRNA as well as L-asparaginase treatment.