Structural Basis for Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor Activation and Implications for Disease Therapy

• Published in: Biomolecules (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 10; no. 12; p. 1673
• Main Authors: Shaik, Faheem, Cuthbert, Gary A, Homer-Vanniasinkam, Shervanthi, Muench, Stephen P, Ponnambalam, Sreenivasan, Harrison, Michael A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 15.12.2020; MDPI
• Subjects: Affinity; Amino acids; Angiogenesis; bevacizumab; Binding sites; cancer; Cell growth; Diabetic retinopathy; Endothelium; Genes; Glycoproteins; Hypoxia; Immunotherapy; Kinases; Ligands; Metastasis; Monoclonal antibodies; Neuropilin; Permeability; Physiology; Protein-tyrosine kinase; Receptor mechanisms; receptor tyrosine kinase; Review; Signal transduction; Structure-function relationships; Targeted cancer therapy; Tumors; Vascular endothelial growth factor; Vascular endothelial growth factor receptors; VEGFR; Wound healing; sunitinib; aflibercept; signal transduction; angiogenesis; VEGFR; bevacizumab; cancer; receptor tyrosine kinase
• ISSN: 2218-273X; 2218-273X
• DOI: 10.3390/biom10121673

Vascular endothelial growth factors (VEGFs) bind to membrane receptors on a wide variety of cells to regulate diverse biological responses. The VEGF-A family member promotes vasculogenesis and angiogenesis, processes which are essential for vascular development and physiology. As angiogenesis can be subverted in many disease states, including tumour development and progression, there is much interest in understanding the mechanistic basis for how VEGF-A regulates cell and tissue function. VEGF-A binds with high affinity to two VEGF receptor tyrosine kinases (VEGFR1, VEGFR2) and with lower affinity to co-receptors called neuropilin-1 and neuropilin-2 (NRP1, NRP2). Here, we use a structural viewpoint to summarise our current knowledge of VEGF-VEGFR activation and signal transduction. As targeting VEGF-VEGFR activation holds much therapeutic promise, we examine the structural basis for anti-angiogenic therapy using small-molecule compounds such as tyrosine kinase inhibitors that block VEGFR activation and downstream signalling. This review provides a rational basis towards reconciling VEGF and VEGFR structure and function in developing new therapeutics for a diverse range of ailments.