Associate Provost for Research Boston University Medical Campus
NEI - National Eye Institute	Research Resources

Abstract

Abstract: DESCRIPTION (Provided by applicant): Angiogenesis is an essential process not only in normal development, but in pathological conditions such as tumor growth and metastasis. New and improved methods for preventing angiogenesis require an understanding of the mechanisms that regulate angiogenesis. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and its receptors (VEGFR-lIFlt-l and VEGFR-2/Flk-1/KDR) are considered to be primary regulators of tumor-induced angiogenesis. Activation of VEGFR-2 stimulates angiogenesis, while VEGFR- 1 activation appears to play a dual function by either stimulating angiogenesis or suppressing angiogenesis. Therefore, understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying these strikingly different effects is essential for development of targeted therapeutic interventions aimed at angiogenesis suppression. The overall goal of this proposal is to investigate the mechanism by which VEGFRS are activated and to exploit these differences to suppress angiogenesis. This proposal focuses on the mechanism by which ligand binding results in the activation of VEGF receptors, a fundamental issue in signal transduction and angiogenesis. Once we determine the mechanism by which VEGF receptors are engaged it will be possible to attenuate the angiogenic signal transduction relay by developing targeted therapeutic interventions aimed at angiogenesis suppression

Thesaurus Terms:
angiogenesis, biological signal transduction, growth factor receptor, pathologic process, protein protein interaction, receptor expression, vascular endothelial growth factor
cell migration, cell proliferation, dimer, ligand, mitogen activated protein kinase, phosphorylation, protein structure function, receptor binding, tyrosine
cell line, tissue /cell culture

Institution:	BOSTON UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CAMPUS
	715 ALBANY ST, 560
	BOSTON, MA 021182394
Fiscal Year:	2006
Department:	OPHTHALMOLOGY
Project Start:	01-APR-2002
Project End:	28-FEB-2007
ICD:	NATIONAL EYE INSTITUTE
IRG:	PTHA