Delving into the Latest Updates on Velcura Therapeutics, Inc. with Synapse

Overview

AbstractThe most frequent site of prostate cancer metastasis is the bone. Adhesion to bone-specific factors may facilitate the selective metastasis of prostate cancer to the skeleton. Therefore, we tested whether prostate cancer bone metastasis is mediated by binding to type I collagen, the most abundant bone protein. We observed that only bone metastatic prostate cancer cells bound collagen I, whereas cells that form only visceral metastases failed to bind collagen. To confirm the relationship between collagen adhesion and bone metastatic potential, a collagen-binding variant of human LNCaP prostate cancer cells was derived through serial passage on type I collagen (LNCaPcol). Fluorescence-activated cell sorting analysis showed that LNCaPcol cells express increased levels of the integrin collagen I receptor α2β1 compared with LNCaP cells. Antibodies to the α2β1 complex inhibited LNCaPcol binding to collagen, confirming that integrins mediated the attachment. Correspondingly, LNCaPcol cells displayed enhanced chemotactic migration toward collagen I compared with LNCaP cells, an activity that could be blocked with α2β1 antibodies. To directly test the role of α2β1-dependent collagen binding in bone metastasis, LNCaP and LNCaPcol cells were injected into the tibia of nude mice. After 9 weeks, 7 of 13 (53%) mice injected with LNCaPcol developed bone tumors, whereas 0 of 8 mice injected with LNCaP cells had evidence of boney lesions. LNCaPcol cells were found to express increased levels of the metastasis-promoting RhoC GTPase compared with parental LNCaP. We conclude that collagen I attachment mediated by α2β1 initiates motility programs through RhoC and suggest a mechanism for prostate cancer metastasis to the bone. (Cancer Res 2006; 66(17): 8648-54)

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Pipeline

Pipeline Snapshot as of 19 Nov 2024

The statistics for drugs in the Pipeline is the current organization and its subsidiaries are counted as organizations,Early Phase 1 is incorporated into Phase 1, Phase 1/2 is incorporated into phase 2, and phase 2/3 is incorporated into phase 3

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