Despite the near-universal skepticism that initially greeted Folkman?s presentation of his idea that anti-angiogenesis would be an effective approach to cancer chemotherapy, this concept has now become widely accepted and forms a basis not only for cancer therapy, but also for therapy of a broad range of non-neoplastic disorders that Folkman summarizes under the term 'angiogenesis-dependent diseases'. Currently approved therapies, directed against the central bodily chemical involved in angiogenesis, VEGF, are useful, but not entirely safe or effective. We propose to develop new anti-VEGF agents through discovery by powerful phage display methods, and to apply these new agents as a forthcoming generation of safe and effective angiogenesis inhibitors.
Our specific aims are: (i) to discover and develop new anti-angiogenic peptidomimetic compounds targeting the VEGF receptor family, and (ii) to design and test new agents for therapeutic control of retinal angiogenesis. These agents would both bind selectively to pathological new blood vessels and block or destroy them, without affecting normal blood vessels. Our goal is to understand and inhibit pathological angiogenesis in the neural retina of experimental mouse models of human blindness-causing diseases.

Public Health Relevance

Blood vessels are essential bodily components that deliver oxygen and nutrients to almost all organs and tissues. Most vessels are formed during embryonic development, and in adults the formation of new blood vessels (a process called angiogenesis) is limited, mainly during wound healing and the normal female reproductive cycle. This creates an opportunity for therapy, as several diseases can progress only if they induce the formation of new blood vessels;cancer, obesity, diabetes, asthma, arthritis, cirrhosis, and ocular diseases are among the many illnesses likely to be slowed down or blocked by the development of angiogenesis inhibitors. Our goal in this proposal is to understand and prevent the pathological angiogenesis process in experimental models for diseases of the retina while sparing normal angiogenesis, with the expectation that the results will, in time, extrapolate to new treatment regimens and therapy for the two major retinal vascular diseases causing blindness in the U.S. for which we have good experimental models -- retinopathy of prematurity and age-related macular degeneration.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Eye Institute (NEI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01EY019459-04
Application #
8271409
Study Section
Drug Discovery and Molecular Pharmacology Study Section (DMP)
Program Officer
Shen, Grace L
Project Start
2009-06-01
Project End
2013-08-31
Budget Start
2012-06-01
Budget End
2013-08-31
Support Year
4
Fiscal Year
2012
Total Cost
$143,507
Indirect Cost
$50,320
Name
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Department
Internal Medicine/Medicine
Type
Other Domestic Higher Education
DUNS #
800772139
City
Houston
State
TX
Country
United States
Zip Code
77030
Sidman, Richard L; Li, Jianxue; Lawrence, Matthew et al. (2015) The peptidomimetic Vasotide targets two retinal VEGF receptors and reduces pathological angiogenesis in murine and nonhuman primate models of retinal disease. Sci Transl Med 7:309ra165
Nunes, Diana N; Dias-Neto, Emmanuel; Cardó-Vila, Marina et al. (2015) Synchronous down-modulation of miR-17 family members is an early causative event in the retinal angiogenic switch. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 112:3770-5