A promising approach to cancer treatment is targeting tumor blood vessels with drugs. By cutting off the tumor’s nutrient supply through the bloodstream, its growth can be slowed or even halted. However, for these drugs to be effective, they need to specifically target molecules—proteins—found in tumor blood vessels.

Researchers of the Angiogenesis Laboratory of Amsterdam UMC have discovered that blood vessels in tumors reuse specific proteins that are otherwise only present during embryonic development. These proteins are absent in a healthy adult body, making them ideal targets for cancer treatment without affecting normal tissues.

We found that all four vaccines successfully inhibited tumor growth in mice"
Dr. Else Huijbers
Senior Scientist at CimCure B.V. and researcher at Amsterdam UMC

In an article that appears today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (PNAS), the same researchers tested the concept by developing vaccines against four of these embryonic proteins. "We found that all four vaccines successfully inhibited tumor growth in mice," says Dr. Huijbers. These findings highlight a potential new strategy for cancer treatment by leveraging the unique molecular profile of tumor vasculature.

Further research is needed to determine whether this approach will be effective in humans. If successful, it could lead to a novel therapeutic strategy, improving the precision and safety of cancer treatments. Scientists hope that targeting these embryonic proteins could open new doors for innovative and less toxic cancer therapies.

People involved

Elisabeth J.M. Huijbers 1,2, Judy R. van Beijnum 1, Karlijn van Loon 1, Christian J. Griffioen 3, Rickard Volckmann3, Ayse Bassez4, Diether Lambrechts4, Madalena Nunes Monteiro6, Connie R. Jimenez6, Pancras C. W. Hogendoorn5, Jan Koster3, Arjan W. Griffioen1,2*

Affiliations

1Angiogenesis Laboratory, Department of Medical Oncology, Amsterdam UMC, Cancer Center Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2CimCure BV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
3Laboratory of Experimental Oncology and Radiobiology, Amsterdam UMC, Cancer Center Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
4VIB-KU Leuven Center for Cancer Biology, Leuven, Belgium
5Department of Pathology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
6Oncoproteomics Laboratory, Department of Medical Oncology, Amsterdam UMC, Cancer Center Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Competing interests

EJH and AWG are inventors of 2 patents filed for the iBoost technology; PCT/NL2017/050526 (US20230340045A1) – Embryonic angiogenesis markers and diagnostic and therapeutic strategies based thereon, inventors: Arjan Willem Griffioen, Elisabeth Johanna Maria Huijbers and Patrycja Nowak-Sliwinska; KvL is inventor on 1 patent filed for the iBoost technology; PCT/NL2023/050226 – Novel peptide conjugate vaccines, inventors: Arjan Willem Griffioen, Elisabeth Johanna Maria Huijbers and Karlijn van Loon. AWG holds shares in CimCure. EJH is full-time and AWG part-time employed by CimCure BV.

Funding

EU, FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IEF, GENE, ID: 328695 (EJH), Dutch Cancer Society KWF 2018-11651 (EJH, AWG), Health~Holland, PPP Allowance LSHM18007 (AWG), Cancer Center Amsterdam, Mass spectrometry infrastructure (to CRJ).

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