Folinic Acid
Write The Basis Of Folinic Acid Is Given With Chemotherapy For Cancer.
Answer:
Folinic acid is given with chemotherapy for cancer because the chemotherapeutic drugs especially methotrexate is a folate antagonist.
It acts by inhibiting dihydrofolate reductase, blocking the conversion of dihydrofolic acid to tetrahydrofolic acid. So methotrexate is responsible for inhibiting folate-dependent reactions inside the body.
Folinic acid is chemically 5-formyltetrahydrofolate which is more stable than tetrahydrofolate, so it directly acts as an active coenzyme and leads to folate-dependent reactions inside the body.
As folinic acid is given with chemotherapy it results in the resumption of DNA synthesis in normal cells. It is professed that normal cells are rescued more than cancer cells and so the therapeutic index is increased.
Folinic acid can also potentiate the antitumor activity of 5 fluorouracil by enhancing the binding of 5 fluorouracil with the specific enzyme in the cancer cells.
Therefore, folinic acid is given with chemotherapy for cancer.
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