With our recent success in developing a recombinant human arginase drug against broad-spectrum cancer cell lines, we have explored the potential of a recombinant Bacillus caldovelox arginase mutant (BCA-M) for human cervical cancer treatment. Our studies demonstrated that BCA-M significantly inhibited the growth of human cervical cancer cells in vitro regardless of argininosuccinate synthetase (ASS) and argininosuccinate lyase (ASL) expression. Drug susceptibilities correlate well with the

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... ssions of major urea cycle genes and completeness of L-arginine regeneration pathways. With the expressions of ASS and ASL genes conferring resistance to L-arginine deiminase (ADI) which is undergoing Phase III clinical trial, BCA-M offers the advantage of a broader spectrum of susceptible cancer cells. Mechanistic studies showed that BCA-M inhibited the growth of human cervical cancer cells by inducing apoptosis and cell cycle arrest at S and/or G2/M phases. Our results also displayed that autophagy served as a protective mechanism, while the growth inhibitory effects of BCA-M could be enhanced synergistically by its combination to the autophagy inhibitor, chloroquine (CQ), on human cervical cancer cells.