Angiogenesis
| Our cells need oxygen and nutrients to survive and thus must be located within about 200 micrometers of blood vessels. This distance is the diffusion limit of oxygen. In 1968 it was suggested that tumour growth produced a substance which caused the proliferation of blood vessels - angiogenesis. In 1971 Folkman proposed blocking angiogenesis as a way of stopping tumour growth. In 1976 Gulino showed that even pre-cancerous cells acquired this ability. It is now known that both stimulatory and blocking pathways exist and just tipping the balance in either direction can cause either proliferation or inhibition. Over the last decade we have seen drugs which block angiogenesis come into the cancer treatment market with considerable success. Angiogenesis can also be important in other areas of medicine. For example coronary vessel blockage in the heart may be circumvented by stimulating angiogensis in the region which would bypass blood flow around the blockage. It also may be important in obesity where fat is quite vascular and blocking blood vessel growth here could in the future lead to methods to control marked obesity. Another important area is inflammation secondary to certain arthritic conditions such as Rheumatoid Arthritis which cause the proliferation of new vessels. It is know that anti-inflammatory drugs can to some extent block the formation of these vessels and that the new anti-angiogeneic drugs may be more powerful for these conditions.Very recently (July 2006) University of Minnesota scientists have found a newer version of these anti-angiogeneic drugs. It inhibited tumour growth in 80% of mice given the drug and when combined with chemo this inhibition reached 100%. The drug only mimics part of the anti-angiogenic protein and thus can be given in pill form unlike previous ones which must be given via IV. As we gain more insight into the angiogenic pathways in the human body and in cancerous tissue we will see significant improvement in our battle with the dark cancerous forces that sometimes unleash in our bodies and see improved therapies for other diseases. | ||||||||||||||||||||
see comments or
post your comment
see previous blog
go to next blog