Parstatin, a novel protease-activated receptor 1-derived inhibitor of angiogenesis

Mol Interv. 2009 Aug;9(4):168-70. doi: 10.1124/mi.9.4.4.

Abstract

Angiogenesis, the process of forming new blood vessels, is a well established and clinically relevant feature of a variety of disease states. Whether blood vessels sprout in a given tissue environment depends on the balance between factors that stimulate angiogenesis and those that impede it. Potent pro-angiogenic factors such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) have been identified, validated, and successfully used in the clinic. Likewise, anti-angiogenic factors are also emerging as biologically relevant and therapeutically useful entities. PAR1 is a G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) that participates in hemostasis and vascular development and that mediates the angiogenic activity of thrombin. PAR1 is activated through proteolytic cleavage of its first forty-one extracellular residues by a variety of proteases, most notably thrombin. However, little effort has focused on the forty-one-residue peptide fragment liberated during PAR1 activation. Tsopanoglou and colleagues have now demonstrated that this peptide, parstatin, has intriguing antiangiogenic activity, and, in a follow-up study, they demonstrate its potential pharmacological utility using a rat model of ischemic heart disease.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Angiogenesis Inhibitors / genetics
  • Angiogenesis Inhibitors / metabolism
  • Angiogenesis Inhibitors / pharmacology*
  • Animals
  • Drug Therapy*
  • Gene Expression
  • Humans
  • Peptide Fragments / genetics
  • Peptide Fragments / metabolism
  • Peptide Fragments / pharmacology*
  • Receptor, PAR-1 / genetics
  • Receptor, PAR-1 / metabolism

Substances

  • Angiogenesis Inhibitors
  • PAR-1 receptor (1-41), human
  • Peptide Fragments
  • Receptor, PAR-1