Tumor Markers Series Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF)-Special topic on antibody modification-Tekbiotech-Yeast Display Service,Phage display technology

Tumor Markers Series Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF)

Introduction to VEGF

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a key biological molecule that plays a vital role in angiogenesis and maintaining vascular function. It is composed of several structurally similar glycoproteins with a molecular weight of about 45 kDa, and mainly exerts biological functions by binding to specific receptors. The VEGF family includes multiple members such as VEGF-A, VEGF-B, VEGF-C, VEGF-D, VEGF-E, VEGF-F, and placental growth factor (PLGF), which play important roles in different physiological and pathological processes.

Under normal circumstances, angiogenesis occurs during embryonic development, wound healing, and physiological cycles, but abnormal blood vessels will appear in unhealthy people. Abnormal angiogenesis is based on new blood vessels and transforms into tumor blood vessels, which have the characteristics of vascular curling, permeability, diverse shapes, and high perfusion efficiency.

Under the action of oncogene expression and multiple growth factors, VEGF shows an upward trend. VEGF provides nutrition and oxygen to tumor blood vessels smaller than 1-2 mm; under the joint action of growth factors, tumors grow exponentially.

VEGF not only plays an important role in vascular tumors, but also participates in the development of several diseases related to retinopathy; it can also act as an immunosuppressive factor to induce the formation of an immunosuppressive state in the tumor microenvironment, thereby mediating the tumor immune escape pathway and inducing the recurrence and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

VEGF Signaling Pathway

The VEGF signaling pathway includes the following pathways: mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway, PI3K-Akt/PKB pathway, and Ca2+-phospholipid-dependent kinase pathway. Therefore, according to the mechanism of action of VEGF, VEGF antibodies are generated with VEGF targets for anti-tumor use.

Tumor cells bind and interact with VEGFR-1 and VEGFR-2 receptors on the cell surface through autocrine and paracrine VEGF. VEGFR-1 prevents the interaction between VEGF-A and VEGFR-2; VEGFR-2 is the main molecule that regulates the effects of most vascular growth factors VEGF-A; VEGFR-3 is mainly involved in the formation of lymphatic vessels and does not bind to VEGF-A.

VEFG Antibody

Many therapeutic drugs or antibodies targeting VEGF subtypes, VEGF receptors or signaling pathways have emerged.

Anti-VEGF drugs inhibit the function of VEFG, promote the normalization of tumor blood vessels, alleviate the immunosuppressive state of the microenvironment, and thus inhibit the malignant growth and metastasis of tumor cells. Anti-VEGF drugs combined with HCC anti-angiogenic drugs inhibit tumor cell growth by reducing the blood and oxygen supply of tumors. Anti-VEGF drugs can restore the typical irregular blood vessels of tumors to normal structures, ensure normal blood circulation, and promote the effective delivery of anti-tumor drugs to tumor cells.

At present, many VEGF drugs have been used in clinical practice, including bevacizumab, sorafenib, sunitinib, lenvatinib, ramucirumab, etc. According to the mechanism of drug action, they can be divided into vascular endothelial growth factor inhibitors, receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors, PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway inhibitors, etc. Bevacizumab is a humanized monoclonal antibody with fewer side effects on the human body. It inhibits the interaction between VEGF and receptors and the activation of downstream pathways. Sorafenib inhibits Raf kinase, VEGFRs, etc., and never inhibits tumor angiogenesis. The drug will produce certain side effects, including diarrhea, hand-foot syndrome, etc. Sunitinib inhibits tumor angiogenesis by inhibiting VEGFRs, PDGFR-α, PDGFR-β, etc., and it has recently been found that the drug is beneficial for the treatment of ovarian cancer. Aflibercept is produced by recombinant fusion protein of VEGFR. It inhibits angiogenesis by inhibiting the binding of ligand and receptor, and can degenerate tumor blood vessels.

TekBiotech has been committed to the field of antibodies for many years, has mature technology, and has rich experience in therapeutic antibodies. It can provide you with customized antibody drug services. In addition, TekBiotech also provides customized small molecule modification, antibody expression and purification, affinity determination, antibody sequencing, etc. to meet customer needs.

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