Dec. 17, 2012 A research team led by scientists at Mayo Clinic
in Florida have decoded the entire pathway that regulates
leakiness of blood vessels -- a condition that promotes a wide
number of disorders, such as heart disease, cancer growth and
spread, inflammation and respiratory distress. They say their
findings, published online Dec. 17 in the Journal of Cell
Biology, suggest that several agents already being tested for
other conditions might reverse vessel leakiness. "Now that we
understand a lot more about the pathway that leads to leaky
blood vessels, we can begin to try to target it in an efficient
way, and that is very exciting," says the study's lead
investigator, Panos Z. Anastasiadis, Ph.D., chair of the
Department of Cancer Biology at Mayo Clinic in Florida.
Physicians have attempted to regulate that pathway in cancer
through use of VEGF inhibitors, such as Bevacizumab, but these
drugs are not as effective as they might be if other parts of
the pathway were also inhibited, Dr. Anastasiadis says.