New VEGF-A Variant May Be Cancer Inhibitor (Video)

A protein has been identified that inhibits the growth of cancerous tumors and slows development of new blood vessels that allow cancers to spread. The protein is a variant of vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A), a substance known to promote cancer growth. The researchers named the variant VEGF-Ax. The protein cuts off the blood supply to tumors and inhibits tumor development in animal models. It could have major implications for the use of existing anti-VEGF therapies and the development of new drugs.

The findings were made by a team led by Paul Fox, PhD, of Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute, and were published in Cell. “It is truly remarkable that a small change in a protein sequence leads not just to a protein with a different function, but one with a function completely opposite to the original,” says Dr. Fox. “In the context of cancer, the small extension changes a very ‘bad’ protein into a very ‘good’ one.”