Glutamine aminotransferase and glutamine aminohydrolase ratio as a possible test for antitumour compounds.

Three known antitumour drugs have been tested for their effect on the GAT/GNase ratio of Ehrlich Ascites cells and host plasma. It was observed that all these drugs had changed the ratio of the 2 types of glutaminases from below 1.0 to the normal value of 1.0, this was accompanied with an increase in the survival time of the tumour-bearing animals. There was, however, no effect on the plasma GAT/GNase ratio of normal animals in the presence of the 3 antitumour compounds tested.