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Biotech / Medical : Regeneron Pharmaceuticals -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: juneau_boy who wrote (427)	4/18/2000 7:53:00 PM
From: Miljenko Zuanic	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3559

"Zrno po zrno,...pogaca!" medscape.com Angiogenesis Inhibition Investigated for Treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis, Asthma -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SAN DIEGO, Apr 18 (Reuters Health) - Inhibition of angiogenesis may be useful not only in halting tumor growth, but also in treating diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and asthma, according to a series of presentations here this past weekend at the Experimental Biology 2000 meeting. Dr. Alisa Koch of Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago, Illinois, noted that blocking adhesion molecules that allow inflammatory cells to get into the synovial tissue would block inflammation and angiogenesis. Her laboratory has shown that the E-selectin adhesion molecule can be shed by endothelial cells, as well as a molecule similar to the E-selectin receptor, causing growth of new blood vessels. In a separate presentation, Dr. Donald McDonald of the University of California, San Francisco, described potential uses of blocking angiogenesis in asthmatics, in whom blood vessel leakage constricts the airways in the lung. He pointed out that blood vessels formed in tumors and in chronic diseases differ from normal vessels in that they promote leukocyte adhesion and are more leaky. He noted that since many molecules can make vessels leaky, targeting the vessel for therapy is potentially useful, since the vessel ultimately controls leukocyte migration and flow of molecules. Dr. McDonald and his colleagues have found that the endothelial growth factor angiopoietin-1 stops leakage. Transgenic mice expressing angiopoietin in the skin were resistant to substances placed on the skin that cause leakage, and normal mice injected with an adenovirus expressing angiopoietin were also resistant to leakage-promoting substances placed on the skin, he said. Although the body normally makes angiopoietin-1, how production is regulated is unknown, he said. A protein or a small molecule that acts on the angiopoietin receptor could be useful in treating asthma by blocking leakage, Dr. McDonald concluded.