• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.839-845
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• 1993

One of the major problems of cancer chemotheraphy is the development of drug resistance in tumors, resulting in reduced responsiveness to subsequent treatments. The folate antagonists are being used to treat such diverse illnesses as cancer, leukemia, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, etc. Previous studies have established that resistance to antifolates may occur in mammalian tumor cells by one or more of five mechanisms ; (a) an increase in the levels of the target enzyme, generally as a consequence of gene amplification ; (b) an alteration in the target enzyme, leading to an enzyme with a decreased binding affinity for the drug ; (c) a decrease in the uptake of the drug into the cells ; (d) increased extrusion of drugs out of cells ; (e) impaired ability to polyglutamylate the parent drug which is capable of being intracellularly metabolized to longer chain length.