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Opinion

Angiogenesis: an organizing principle for drug discovery?

Abstract

Angiogenesis — the process of new blood-vessel growth — has an essential role in development, reproduction and repair. However, pathological angiogenesis occurs not only in tumour formation, but also in a range of non-neoplastic diseases that could be classed together as 'angiogenesis-dependent diseases'. By viewing the process of angiogenesis as an 'organizing principle' in biology, intriguing insights into the molecular mechanisms of seemingly unrelated phenomena might be gained. This has important consequences for the clinical use of angiogenesis inhibitors and for drug discovery, not only for optimizing the treatment of cancer, but possibly also for developing therapeutic approaches for various diseases that are otherwise unrelated to each other.

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Figure 1: Key steps in tumour angiogenesis.
Figure 3: Examples of anti-angiogenic therapy.
Figure 4: Oncogene addiction is angiogenesis dependent.
Figure 5: Angiogenic proteins in breast cancer.
Figure 6: Three general mechanisms of angiogenesis inhibitors currently approved by the FDA.
Figure 7: Small molecules to increase endogenous angiogenesis inhibitors.
Figure 2: Angiogenesis in rat sarcoma.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported in part by the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, a Department of Defense Innovator Award and a Department of Defense Congressional Award. I thank S. Connors and J. Grillo for help with the manuscript.

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Age-related macular degeneration

Alzheimer's disease

Chronic myeloid leukaemia

colorectal cancer

Down syndrome

infantile haemangiomas

multiple myeloma

non-small-cell lung cancer

rheumatoid arthritis

testicular cancer

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Folkman, J. Angiogenesis: an organizing principle for drug discovery?. Nat Rev Drug Discov 6, 273–286 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd2115

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