Possible Interaction: Glutamine and Methotrexate

“ Oral GLN has been shown to decrease the gut toxicity seen with MTX treatment while enhancing its tumoricidal effect.”

“We conclude that oral glutamine can decrease the severity and duration of oropharyngeal mucositis in autologous BMT patients but not in allogeneic BMT patients, possibly due to interaction with methotrexate.”

“In conclusion, IT MTX induces persistent alterations in glutaminergic tone that may contribute to persistent cognitive deficits.”

“… GLN … methotrexate concentrations in tumor tissues at 24 and 48 hours (38.0 +/- 0.20 nmol/g for the +GLN group vs 28.8 +/- 0.10 … and 35.6 +/- 0.18 nmol/g for the +GLN group vs 32.5 +/- 0.16 nmol/g for the -GLN group, respectively).”

“He was receiving treatment with glutamine when the third course of methotrexate was administered (5 g/m(2)) and he suffered a deterioration in his renal function.”

“ Glutamine decreases methotrexate systemic clearance, thus exposing the host as well as the tumor to greater methotrexate concentrations.”

“The authors hypothesized that supplemental oral glutamine GLN ) would increase the therapeutic index of methotrexate (MTX) by improving host tolerance through changes in glutathione metabolism.”

“ Glutamine supplementation enhances the tumoricidal effectiveness of methotrexate while reducing its morbidity and mortality in this sarcoma rat model.”

“In rats receiving methotrexate , the tumor volume loss was nearly doubled when glutamine was added to the diet.”

“In studies with the Ehrlich ascites tumor accumulation of methotrexate polyglutamates was increased over 5-fold by the addition of 5 mM L-glutamine or L-glutamate and exhibited a positive correlation with the extracellular concentration of methotrexate.”

“ Dietary glutamine reduces the severity of the immunosuppressive effect induced by methotrexate and improves the immune status of rats recovering from chemotherapy.”