Blockage of VEGF-Induced Angiogenesis with a Novel Anti-angiogenic (JFD) Drug

Blockage of VEGF-Induced Angiogenesis with a Novel Anti-angiogenic (JFD) Drug

Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) is frequently expressed in several pathological tissues and is known to promote angiogenesis and vasculogenesis in highly metastatic cancers. The purpose of this experiment was to re-evaluate the efficiency of JFD drug, in varying concentrations, on the capillary formation by HUVEC cells. To accomplish the intended purpose an In-Vitro Angiogenesis assay kit was utilized to examine capillary formation by HUVEC cells. Approximately 5 x 103 HUVEC cells were seeded into matrigel, which simulates an endothelial cell matrix, on a Petri- dish. To these plates different concentrations (0.1μM, 0.25 μM, 0.5 μM, 2.5 μM, and 5.0 μM) of JFD were utilized to determine its efficacy for preventing capillary formation. For validation of our findings, at least three wells per concentration were tested and similarly three control wells were used for comparison. The effect of the drug was assessed at intervals of four hours. Upon microscopy analysis of the capillary network formation, scoring values ranging from 0 -5 were assigned depending on the extent of inhibition. The scoring depended on whether there was alignment of HUVEC cells, capillary tube formation or closed polygon formation, etc. As expected 5.0 μM concentration of JFD gave the maximum inhibition however, the inhibitory effect was seen even at 0.1 μM concentration. Our experiments reaffirmed the anti-angiogenic effects of JFD which has great potential to become an anti-cancer agent. (The study was supported by the generous funding from the Royal Dames for Cancer Research Inc, Ft. Lauderdale, Flo r ida ).