Angiogenese en de regulatie van de afweer tegen tumoren

- Formation of new blood vessels is a prerequisite for outgrowth of solid tumours and metastasis. Leukaemia and lymphoma are also dependent on angiogenesis.

- Inhibition of angiogenesis is therefore a promising therapy for all cancer types.

- Angiogenic factors reduce the expression of tumour endothelial adhesion molecules for leukocytes, which enables tumours to escape the inflammation response.

- Antiangiogenic factors induce not only starvation of the tumour owing to deprivation of vasculature, but also re-expression of adhesion molecules, resulting in increased leukocyte infiltration.

- On the basis of de novo design of chemokines with antiangiogenic properties, novel inhibitors of angiogenesis are developed and selected for their ability to induce a tumour inflammatory reaction.