Angiogenesis, or formation of new blood vessels, is crucial to cancer tumor growth. Tumor growth, progression, and metastasis are critically influenced by the production of the pro-angiogenic vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Promising anti-angiogenic drugs are currently available; however, their susceptibilities to drug resistance and long term toxicity are serious impediments to their use, thus requiring the development of new therapeutic approaches for safe and effective angiogenic inhibitors. In this work, peptides were designed to mimic the VEGF-binding site to its receptor VEGFR-2. The VEGF conformational peptide mimic, VEGF-P3(CYC), included two artificial cysteine residues, which upon cyclization constrained the peptide in a loop native-like conformation to better mimic the anti-parallel structure of VEGF. The engineered cyclic VEGF mimic peptide demonstrated the highest affinity to VEGFR-2 by surface plasmon resonance assay. The VEGF peptide mimics were evaluated as inhibitors in several in vitro assays in which VEGF-dependent signaling pathways were observed. All VEGF mimics inhibited VEGFR-2 phosphorylation with VEGF-P3(CYC) showing the highest inhibitory effects when compared with unstructured peptides. Additionally, we show in several angiogenic in vitro assays that all the VEGF mimics inhibited endothelial cell proliferation, migration, and network formation with the conformational VEGF-P3 (CYC) being the best. The VEGF-P3(CYC) also caused a significant delay in tumor development in a transgenic model of VEGF ؉/؊ Neu2-5 ؉/؊ .These results indicate that the structure-based design is important for the development of this peptidomimetic and for its antiangiogenic effects.

A B S T R A C T PurposeTo evaluate the maximum-tolerated dose (MTD), safety profile, and immunogenicity of two chimeric, B-cell epitopes derived from the human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER2) extracellular domain in a combination vaccine with a promiscuous T-cell epitope (ie, MVF) and nor-muramyl-dipeptide as adjuvant emulsified in SEPPIC ISA 720. Patients and MethodsEligible patients with metastatic and/or recurrent solid tumors received three inoculations on days 1, 22, and 43 at doses of total peptide that ranged from 0.5 to 3.0 mg. Immunogenicity was evaluated by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, flow cytometry, and HER2 signaling assays. ResultsTwenty-four patients received three inoculations at the intended dose levels, which elicited antibodies able to recognize native HER2 receptor and inhibited both the proliferation of HER2-expressing cell lines and phosphorylation of the HER2 protein. The MTD was determined to be the highest dose level of 3.0 mg of the combination vaccine. There was a significant increase from dose level 1 (0.5 mg) to dose level 4 (3.0 mg) in HER2-specific antibodies. Four patients (one each with adrenal, colon, ovarian, and squamous cell carcinoma of unknown primary) were judged to have stable disease; two patients (one each with endometrial and ovarian cancer) had partial responses; and 11 patients had progressive disease. Patients with stable disease received 6-month boosts, and one patient received a 20-month boost. ConclusionThe combination vaccines were safe and effective in eliciting antibody responses in a subset of patients (62.5%) and were associated with no serious adverse events, autoimmune disease, or cardiotoxicity. There was preliminary evidence of clinical activity in several patients.

A subset of familial and sporadic clear cell renal cell carcinomas (ccRCCs) is believed to develop from cystic precursor lesions. Loss of function of the von Hippel-Lindau tumor suppressor gene (VHL) predisposes renal epithelial cells to loss of the primary cilium in response to specific signals. Because the primary cilium suppresses renal cyst formation, loss of the cilium may be an initiating event in the formation of ccRCC. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed the consequences of inducible renal epithelium-specific deletion of Vhl together with ablation of the primary cilium via deletion of the kinesin family member 3A (Kif3a) gene. We developed a microcomputed tomography-based imaging approach to allow quantitative longitudinal monitoring of cystic burden, revealing that combined loss of Vhl and Kif3a shortened the latency of cyst initiation, increased the number of cysts per kidney, and increased the total cystic burden. In contrast with findings in other cystic models, cysts in Kif3a mutant mice did not display accumulation of hypoxia-inducible factor 1-a (HIF1a), and deletion of both Hif1a and Kif3a did not affect cyst development or progression. Vhl/Kif3a double mutation also increased the frequency of cysts that displayed multilayered epithelial growth, which correlated with an increased frequency of misoriented cystic epithelial cell divisions. These results argue against the involvement of HIF1a in promoting renal cyst growth and suggest that the formation of simple and atypical renal cysts that resemble ccRCC precursor lesions is greatly accelerated by the combined loss of Vhl and the primary cilium.

There is a large individual variation in the bone remodelling markers (BRMs) osteocalcin (OC), procollagen 1 N-terminal propeptide (P1NP) and β-isomerized C-terminal telopeptide (β-CTx), as well as undercarboxylated osteocalcin (ucOC), at rest and in response to exercise. α-actinin-3 (ACTN3), a sarcomeric protein, is expressed in skeletal muscle and osteoblasts and may influence BRM levels and the cross-talk between muscle and bone. We tested the levels of serum BRMs in α-actinin-3 deficient humans (ACTN3 XX) at baseline, and following a single bout of exercise. Forty-three healthy Caucasian individuals were divided into three groups (ACTN3 XX, n=13; ACTN3 RX, n=16; ACTN3 RR, n=14). Participants completed a single session of High Intensity Interval Exercise (HIIE) on a cycle ergometer (8×2-min intervals at 85% of maximal power). Blood samples were taken before, immediately after, and three hours post exercise to identify the peak changes in serum BRMs. There was a stepwise increase in resting serum BRMs across the ACTN3 genotypes (XX>RX>RR) with significantly higher levels of tOC ~26%, P1NP ~34%, and β-CTX (~33%) in those with ACTN3 XX compared to ACTN3 RR. Following exercise BRMs and ucOC were higher in all three ACTN3 genotypes, with no significant differences between groups. Serum levels of tOC, P1NP and β-CTX are higher in men with ACTN3 XX genotype (α-actinin-3 deficiency) compared to RR and RX. It appears that the response of BRMs and ucOC to exercise is not explained by the ACTN3 genotype.

The expression of virulence factors such as hemolysin and lipopolysaccharides in Proteobacteria is regulated by the transcription elongation factor RfaH. RfaH reduces pausing and termination at intergenic sites, and thus allows RNA polymerase to conclude transcription of the distal genes in long virulence operons. The yaeQ gene of Salmonella enterica sv. Typhimurium has been identified as a high-copy-number suppressor of the hemolytic defect in an rfaH deletion strain, leading to speculation regarding a direct role of YaeQ in the transcriptional control of bacterial virulence. In order to evaluate this hypothesis, yaeQ genes from Escherichia coli and S. enterica sv. Typhimurium were cloned and expressed. Their products, purified YaeQ proteins, displayed no antitermination effects in in-vitro transcription assays over a wide range of concentrations, neither by themselves nor in competition with RfaH. When overexpressed in vivo, plasmid-borne E. coli and S. enterica sv. Typhimurium yaeQ genes also failed to restore hemolytic activity in an rfaH deletion strain under conditions in which episomal E. coli rfaH and its orthologs exhibited full complementation of the genomic rfaH deletion. Taken together, our findings do not support the hypothesis of YaeQ involvement in RfaH-dependent regulation of virulence, even in stoichiometric excess in vitro or upon overexpression in vivo.