Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
💉 A cancer drug 🍞 A food enzyme
asparaginase

asparaginase

1 9.9
An enzyme used as a medicine to treat some types of leukemia
  • noun
  • /ˌæspəˈrædʒɪneɪz/
  • Specialized
: asparaginasa
  • The doctor prescribed asparaginase to help treat her leukemia effectively.

Examples

  • After receiving asparaginase as part of her treatment, she felt hopeful about her recovery.

  • This form of induction chemotherapy was soon replaced by more effective combinations such as vincristine, prednisone, anthracyclines, and L-asparaginase.

    Academic text (1992)

  • Many patients with leukemia benefit from the addition of asparaginase in their chemotherapy regimen.

Synonyms

Elspar
vsasparaginase
  • Specialized
9.9

An anti-cancer drug used to treat a type of blood cancer

is the enzyme medication class rather than a single brand used for some leukemias

Surface Forms

asparaginase singular
asparaginases plural

Morphology

asparaginase = asparagine (transparent) = asparagin + ase

Formed by the productive biochemical pattern 'substrate name + -ase' (the final -e is dropped), so the enzyme relation is directly inferable.

Etymology

Asparaginase comes from asparagine, an amino acid first found in asparagus, plus the ending -ase, which means 'enzyme'. So asparaginase is literally an enzyme that acts on asparagine, and as a medicine it breaks down that molecule to help treat some leukemias.