Science Current Events | Science News | Brightsurf.com
 
Email a Friend Send to a friend
Printer Friendly Print UK researcher finds 'switching' compound for angiogenesis

UK researcher finds 'switching' compound for angiogenesis

February 03, 2006

For the second time in a week Dr. Jayakrishna Ambati, UK HealthCare physician and associate professor and vice chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, announced a discovery from his lab that will affect the future of macular degeneration treatment and research.

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a substance that promotes angiogenesis-the formation of new blood vessels from pre-existing vessels. In macular degeneration, vessels grow through angiogenesis, destroying the cells that are required for vision. Scientists have long believed that turning off the source of VEGF would lead to halting angiogenesis and disease progression.




Ambati's lab found that while withdrawing VEGF could halt angiogenesis in some areas, it actually encouraged it in others. Upon further investigation Ambati found that this previously undiscovered anti-angiogenic effect of VEGF was mediated via activating VEGFR-1 (VEGF receptor 1) and deactivating VEGFR-2 (VEGF receptor 2). Additionally, his lab found that a compound known as SPARC (secreted protein, acidic and rich in cysteine) could influence and switch the routing of VEGF away from VEGFR-1. Thus, controlling SPARC levels appears to be key to controlling angiogenesis in macular degeneration.

These surprising findings have far-reaching implications beyond ophthalmology and into all areas of medicine because angiogenesis is also the process by which other growths spread in the body, including malignant tumors. Ambati's work has opened the door into methods of controlling angiogenesis and its effects.

University of Kentucky



Related Angiogenesis Current Events and Angiogenesis News Articles Angiogenesis Current Events and Angiogenesis News RSS Angiogenesis Current Events and Angiogenesis News RSS
Researchers Identify Role of Gene in Tumor Development, Growth and Progression
Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center and VCU Institute of Molecular Medicine researchers have identified a gene that may play a pivotal role in two processes that are essential for tumor development, growth and progression to metastasis.

Common pain relief medication may encourage cancer growth
Although morphine has been the gold-standard treatment for postoperative and chronic cancer pain for two centuries, a growing body of evidence is showing that opiate-based painkillers can stimulate the growth and spread of cancer cells.

New mechanism explains how the body prevents formation of blood vessels
Researchers at Uppsala University, in collaboration with colleagues in Sweden and abroad, have identified an entirely new mechanism by which a specific protein in the body inhibits formation of new blood vessels.

Is short-term Celecoxib intervention a effective method for preventing gastric carcinogenesis?
Since the isolation and culture of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) in 1983, this bacterium has become accepted as an important human pathogen for the development of gastritis, peptic ulcer, and gastric cancer.

Alternatively spliced tissue factor identified as promising new biomarker for aggressive cancers
A recently discovered form of the protein that triggers blood clotting may play a key role in the molecular mechanisms leading to the growth of certain metastatic cancers, according to new research reported by an international team of scientists.

Probiotic Found to Be Effective Treatment for Colitis In Mice
The probiotic, Bacillus polyfermenticus, can help mice recover from colitis, a new study has found.

The vasculature emerges as a potential therapeutic target in treating ADPKD liver cysts
As part of an effort to develop effective medical therapies that block the progression of liver cyst growth in patients with Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease (ADPKD), researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Center have found that the liver cyst walls develop and maintain a vasculature as they grow out from the body of the liver and that factors released by epithelial cells that line the liver cyst wall lumen can drive the proliferation and development of vascular endothelial cells.

Ultrasound can predict tumor burden and survival in melanoma patients
Researchers have shown for the first time that patterns of ultrasound signals can be used to identify whether or not cancer has started to spread in melanoma patients, and to what extent. The discovery enables doctors to decide on how much surgery, if any, is required and to predict the patient's probable survival.

Killing Cancer Like a Vampire Slayer
Like vampires, cancer tumors require an ample supply of blood to stay alive. Without fresh blood for sustenance, cancer cells shrivel up like raisins and die.

UCSF scientists illuminate how microRNAs drive tumor progression
UCSF researchers have identified collections of tiny molecules known as microRNAs that affect distinct processes critical for the progression of cancer.
More Angiogenesis Current Events and Angiogenesis News Articles
Angiogenesis: An Integrative Approach from Science to Medicine

Angiogenesis: An Integrative Approach from Science to Medicine
by William D. Figg (Author), William D. Figg (Editor), Judah Folkman (Editor)

Dr. Judah Folkman, father of angiogenesis , (1933-2008) was the Director of the Vascular Biology Program, Andrus Professor of Pediatric Surgery, and Professor of Cell Biology at Harvard University's Boston Children's Hospital. In the 1971 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, he proposed the theory that tumor growth is angiogenesis dependent. This premise was the basis of this field of research and has become the focus of scientists worldwide. Because of Folkman's discovery and research, the possibilities of antiangiogenic and angiogenic therapy have broadened beyond cancer to many noncancerous diseases.

This book represents the first collection in a volume of which Dr. Folkman is co-editor. Dr. Folkman authored nearly 400 original papers and more than 100 book...

Angiogenesis Protocols (Methods in Molecular Biology)

Angiogenesis Protocols (Methods in Molecular Biology)
by Stewart Martin (Editor), Cliff Murray (Editor)

As experimentation and clinical trials with first generation anti-angiogenic agents have yielded results and our understanding of the biology and physiology of blood and lymphatic vessels has increased, a new angiogenesis volume swiftly became a necessity. Angiogenesis Protocols, Second Edition remains true to its original vision of providing a single source for angiogenesis researchers, irrespective of levels of resource and expertise, by collecting a range of methods for cell isolation and assessing angiogenesis in vivo or in vitro. This information, however, is expanded to include chapters on circulating endothelial progenitor cells, angiogenic signalling pathways, imaging of angiogenesis, and measurement of tissue blood flow. Written in the Methods in Molecular Biology™ series...

Dr. Folkman's War: Angiogenesis and the Struggle to Defeat Cancer

Dr. Folkman's War: Angiogenesis and the Struggle to Defeat Cancer
by Robert Cooke (Author), C. Everett Koop (Foreword)

In 1961, twenty-eight-year-old Dr. Judah Folkman saw something while doing medical research in a United

States navy lab that gave him the first glimmering of a wild, inspired hunch. What if cancerous tumors, in order to expand, needed to trigger the growth of new blood vessels to feed themselves? And if that was true, what if a way could be found to stop that growth? Could cancers be starved to death? Dr. Folkman had ample reason to be self confident — second in his class at Harvard Medical School, he was already considered one of the most promising doctors of his generation. But even he never guessed that his idea would eventually grow into a multibillion-dollar industry that is now racing through human trials with drugs that show unparalleled promise of being able to control...

Tumor Angiogenesis: Basic Mechanisms and Cancer Therapy

Tumor Angiogenesis: Basic Mechanisms and Cancer Therapy
by Dieter Marmé (Author), Dieter Marmé (Editor), Norbert Fusenig (Editor)

Tumor angiogenesis is one of the most prominent mechanisms driving tumor development and progression. In the past 30 years some of the most important signaling pathways linking specific angiogenic activities of tumor cells to fatal reactions of the patient s vascular system have been elucidated. Crucial targets for therapeutic intervention have been identified and validated.

Based on these achievements targeted drug development programs have been implemented to interfere with tumor angiogenesis as an attractive strategy in cancer treatment. The first targeted anti-angiogenic drugs have been approved for a variety of solid metastasizing cancers.

Part 1 describes the basic mechanisms. Tumor-angiogenic signaling pathways are presented as new potential targets for...

Angiogenesis Assays: A Critical Appraisal of Current Techniques

Angiogenesis Assays: A Critical Appraisal of Current Techniques
by Carolyn A Staton (Editor), Claire Lewis (Editor), Roy Bicknell (Editor)

Angiogenesis, the development of new blood vessels from the existing vasculature, is essential for physiological growth and over 18,000 research articles have been published describing the role of angiogenesis in over 70 different diseases, including cancer, diabetic retinopathy, rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis. One of the most important technical challenges in such studies has been finding suitable methods for assessing the effects of regulators of eh angiogenic response. While increasing numbers of angiogenesis assays are being described both in vitro and in vivo, it is often still necessary to use a combination of assays to identify the cellular and molecular events in angiogenesis and the full range of effects of a given test protein. Although the endothelial cell - its migration,...

Modern Concepts in Angiogenesis

Modern Concepts in Angiogenesis
by Michael Simons (Author), Michael Simons (Editor), Gabor M. Rubanyi (Editor)

This volume addresses current emerging concepts in the field of angiogenesis, including important angiogenesis modifiers which are essential in combination with growth factors (VEGF and FGF) for the physiological process and also for therapeutic applications. It covers many of the lesser discussed areas including blood vessel growth guidance (interactions with CNS) as well as emerging practical applications of these concepts. The book comprises in-depth reviews by leading experts in several major areas: recent basic science discoveries about angiogenesis modifiers (semaphorins, ephrins and nitric oxide, for which the Nobel Prize was awarded); arterial guidance; clinical applications of new angiogenic factors (HGF, HIF and eNOS); and basic and clinical advancement of anti-angiogenic...

Angiogenesis: From Basic Science to Clinical Applications

Angiogenesis: From Basic Science to Clinical Applications
by Napoleone Ferrara (Editor)

Why a new book on angiogenesis and why now? For the first time concepts proposed over 30 years ago have found clinical validation. In the last two years the first antiangiogenic agents have been approved by the FDA for the treatment of cancer and age-related macular degeneration. Not surprisingly, this clinical success has raised a new set of basic and clinical questions that need to be addressed.

Angiogenesis: From Basic Science to Clinical Applications presents the latest advances in basic science and reviews the status of the clinical applications of angiogenic growth factors and inhibitors. It explores current molecular and genetic findings on the regulation of angiogenesis, discusses the results of clinical trials and identifies the pathological conditions that are most likely to...

Angiogenesis and Direct Myocardial Revascularization (Contemporary Cardiology)

Angiogenesis and Direct Myocardial Revascularization (Contemporary Cardiology)
by Roger J. Laham (Editor), Donald S. Baim (Editor)

An interdisciplinary panel of pioneers and opinion leaders review the basic, preclinical, clinical, and developmental pathways to new treatment strategies, such as therapeutic angiogenesis and myogenesis. The authors take advantage of new biological understanding, novel therapeutic targets, multiple available and well-studied therapeutic strategies, and the necessary imaging techniques to measure outcomes. Their in-depth discussions cover the identification of new therapeutic targets and pathways, the investigation of transcriptional factors, master switch molecules, cell-based approaches, chemokines, a better understanding of the effects of aging, endothelial dysfunction, and hypercholesterolemia in response to angiogenic stimuli. Highlights include examination of drug delivery problems,...

New Frontiers in Angiogenesis

New Frontiers in Angiogenesis
by Reza Forough (Editor)

New Frontiers in Angiogenesis is a fresh and unconventional look at the field of angiogenesis. It focuses on provocative and cutting-edge topics in the field of angiogenesis. Each chapter will take the reader along on a journey into uncharted territories of angiogenesis. The volume starts with a comprehensive overview of the field and continues with topics that have been minimally explored. The topics deal with dynamics of vasculogenesis using imaging techniques, bone marrow-derived endothelial cell precursors as potential therapeutic tools, regulation of post-angiogenic vessel regression, vascular mimicry, design and construction of artificial vessels, bioengineering of angiogenesis, and lymphangiogenesis recapitulating angiogenesis in health and disease states. Each chapter is written...

Tumor Angiogenesis and Microcirculation (Basic and Clinical Oncology)

Tumor Angiogenesis and Microcirculation (Basic and Clinical Oncology)
by Voest/Damore (Author)

Univ. Medical Center Utrecht, The Netherlands. Provides readers with a well-balanced overview of the current biological principles of angiogenesis and microcirculation and its relationship to tumor growth. Outlines methods for finding ways to inhibit circulation to tumors as a method of treatment, including recent achievements.

© 2009 BrightSurf.com