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Updated: Aug 18, 2026

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Cancer Drug Sensitization In Vitro and In Vivo
Published on: February 6, 2015
Inhibition of a cell surface protease after cisplatin chemotherapy
F S Steven1, J Zoeller, H Maier
1Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Manchester, UK.
Abstract:
The epithelial cells in squamous carcinoma and leukoplakia of the oral cavity possess the cell surface protease, guanidinobenzoatase (GB), in an active form. GB is closely similar to plasminogen activator, a protease associated with both transformed cells and tumour cells. The active centre of GB binds the fluorescent probe 9-aminoacridine (9-AA) enabling cells containing active GB to be visualised by fluorescent microscopy. It was observed that chemotherapy with cisplatin resulted in a marked decrease in cell surface GB activity and this decrease was due to the formation of an enzyme-inhibitor complex. One of the results of chemotherapy was shown to be the suppression of a cell surface protease which is known to be associated with migration and malignancy of cells in vivo.
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