Cytidine Deaminase Activity Assay Kit (Fluorometric)

Cytidine Deaminase (3.5.4.5) is a homotetramer enzyme that catalyzes the irreversible deamination of cytidine to produce uridine, thus maintaining the intracellular pyrimidine pool of uridine. Cytidine as well as adenosine, thymidine, guanosine and uridine are one of the five standard nucleosides with which nucleic acids are composed. Nucleosides accumulate or are recycled from salvage pathways within the cell and play an important role in DNA and RNA synthesis and subsequent cell division. Tumorigenesis is intricately linked to metabolism of macromolecular precursors, specifically, the building blocks of DNA and RNA. Thus tumor cells have greater concentrations of uridine and cytidine analogues (402 µM +/- 252) compared to normal cells (83 µM +/- 133), to support the increased demand for nucleotides in mitosis in actively dividing cells. BioVision’s Cytidine Deaminase Activity Assay Kit uses CDA to convert cytidine to the uridine and NH3, as intermediates. The intermediate products then react with a proprietary Reaction Mix to generate a stable fluorophore that can be detected fluorometrically (Ex/Em= 410/470 nm). The kit is suitable for measuring CDA activity as low as 1 µUnit (1 pmole/min/well) in biological samples