Clinical Development of Angiogenesis Inhibitors to Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor and Its Receptors as Cancer Therapeutics

Authors: Zhu Z.; Bohlen P.; Witte L.

Source: Current Cancer Drug Targets, Volume 2, Number 2, June 2002 , pp. 135-156(22)

Publisher: Bentham Science Publishers

Abstract:

Angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels, is essential for both tumor growth and metastasis. Recent advances in our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying the angiogenesis process and its regulation have led to the discovery of a variety of pharmaceutical agents with anti-angiogenic activity. The potential application of these angiogenesis inhibitors is currently under intense clinical investigation. Compelling evidence suggests that vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and its receptors play critical roles in tumor-associated angiogenesis, and that they represent potential targets for therapeutic intervention. This has been demonstrated in a variety of animal tumor models in which disabling the function of VEGF and its receptors was shown to inhibit both tumor growth and metastasis. A number of agents designed specifically for targeting VEGF and / or its receptors are being evaluated in various clinical trials in cancer patients. This review will discuss the biology of the VEGF and its receptors, the mechanisms of action as well as the current status in clinical development of antagonistic agents to VEGF and its receptors. Included in this review are antagonistic antibodies, ribozymes, immunotoxins, and synthetic small molecular inhibitors.

Keywords: angiogenesis inhibitor; vegf; anti-angiogenic; vegfr; plgf; anti-vegfr-1flt-1-antibody

Language: English

Document Type: Review article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1568009023333881

Publication date: 2002-06-01

• Current Cancer Drug Targets aims to cover all the latest and outstanding developments on the medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, molecular biology, genomics and biochemistry of contemporary molecular drug targets involved in cancer, e.g. disease specific proteins, receptors, enzymes, genes.
  Each issue of the journal contains a series of timely in-depth reviews written by leaders in the field covering a range of current topics on drug targets involved in cancer.
  As the discovery, identification, characterization and validation of novel human drug targets for anti-cancer drug discovery continues to grow; this journal has become essential reading for all pharmaceutical scientists involved in drug discovery and development.

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• In this Subject: Oncology ,  Pharmacology
• By this author: Zhu Z. ;  Bohlen P. ;  Witte L.

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