An emerging role for agmatine

Polyamines, required components of proliferation, are autoregulated by the protein antizyme. To date, agmatine is the only molecule other than the pol yamines that can induce antizyme, and thus influence cell homeostasis and g rowth. Agmatine has effectively suppressed proliferation in immortalized an d transformed cell lines. An increased sensitivity to the anti-proliferativ e effects of agmatine observed in Ras transformed versus native cells paral leled an increase in agmatine uptake in the transformed cells. We hypothesi ze that agmatine may target transformed cells via selective transporters.