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Angiogenic zip code

Nature Biotechnology volume 17, page 749 (1999)Cite this article

Good things often come in small packages. In this issue, Renata Pasqualini and colleagues1 have used phage panning to identify a novel peptide, only 10 residues in length, that not only selectively targets angiogenic blood vessels but also inhibits the matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) MMP-2 and MMP-9. When injected into mice, this peptide effectively impedes both growth and invasion of established tumors. Ultimately, therapeutics based on this peptide could prove useful alternatives to MMP inhibitors currently in trials as anticancer agents.

Before the early 1980s, it was generally thought that endothelial cells, and those of the microvascular endothelia in particular, were homogenous. Only in 1981, when Auerbach2 showed that the endothelia in different organs express organ-specific antigens, did the heterogeneity of microvascular endothelia begin to be fully appreciated. Further studies have supported the heterogeneity of endothelial morphology and function, even in the early embryo before the heart begins beating. For instance, Wang et al.3 recently reported that in mice, a membrane-bound ligand of the ephrin family, Eph-B2, marks future arterial but not venous endothelial cells, whereas one of the receptors for Eph-B2 (i.e., Eph-B4) reciprocally marks the venous endothelium.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. professor in Departments of Cell Biology and Pediatric Surgery, Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital, Boston, 02115, MA

    Judah Folkman

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  1. Judah Folkman
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Folkman, J. Angiogenic zip code. Nat Biotechnol 17, 749 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/11676

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