VEGF News and Research

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VEGF is a substance made by cells that stimulates new blood vessel formation. Also called vascular endothelial growth factor.

Diabetic retinopathy therapy innovations: an interview with Richard Kirk, CEO of Polyphotonix

In the UK there are currently over 3.5 million people who have diabetes, with a growth rate exceeding 280,000 people per year. Diabetic retinopathy is the most common complication of diabetes.

19 Oct 2015

Novel ligand peptide-mimic inhibits abnormal overgrowth of blood vessels, may lead to new anti-cancer drugs

An international research team led by scientists at the University of New Mexico Cancer Center discovered and developed a novel ligand peptide-mimic that inhibits abnormal overgrowth of blood vessels in retinal diseases and tumors. The discovery could lead to new drugs that keep cancers from growing. The team published a paper in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

15 Oct 2015

Cabozantinib, nivolumab ‘bring hope’ for advanced RCC patients

Clinical trial results suggest significant benefits with the use of cabozantinib or nivolumab over everolimus for patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma, researchers reported at the European Cancer Congress in Vienna, Austria.

6 Oct 2015

Oraya therapy is effective in maintaining vision with reduced injections for wet AMD patients

The results show that Oraya Therapy is effective in maintaining vision with reduced injections for patients at different stages of their disease—from chronic patients in discontinuous treatment to treatment-naive patients with new diagnosis—and following different treatment pathways.

1 Oct 2015

New drug works better than current treatments for advanced kidney cancer

A new drug has been found superior to current treatments in slowing the growth of advanced kidney cancer in patients who became resistant to the first-line therapies that had kept it in check, according to results from a clinical trial led by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

29 Sep 2015

ILUVIEN continues to show positive results in Europe

Alimera Sciences Limited, the European subsidiary of Alimera Sciences, Inc., a pharmaceutical company that specializes in the research, development and commercialization of prescription ophthalmic pharmaceuticals, announced the availability of real world data from 28 injections of ILUVIEN (Fluocinolone Acetonide 190 micrograms intravitreal implant in applicator) in Europe, presented in a review paper authored by Fahd Quhill, Consultant Ophthalmologist, Department of Ophthalmology, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, U.K.

28 Sep 2015

Patients with advanced kidney cancer benefit from cabozantinib treatment

Patients with advanced kidney cancer live for nearly twice as long without their disease progressing if they are treated with cabozantinib, a drug that inhibits the action of tyrosine kinases - enzymes that function as an "on" or "off" switch in many cellular processes, including cancer.

26 Sep 2015

Alimera Sciences announces results from ongoing study on ILUVIEN

Alimera Sciences, Inc., a pharmaceutical company that specializes in the research, development and commercialization of prescription ophthalmic pharmaceuticals, announced that Alimera Sciences Limited, its European subsidiary based in London, revealed interim six-month data on ILUVIEN (Fluocinolone Acetonide 190 micrograms intravitreal implant in applicator) from the ongoing study referred to as RESPOND, a non-Randomised, open-label, multicenter phase 4 pilot study on the Effect and Safety of ILUVIEN Fluocinolone Acetonide in chronic diabetic macular edema Patients cOnsidered iNsufficiently responsive to available therapies with or without intravitreal corticosteroiD therapy.

24 Sep 2015

FDA approves LONSURF for treatment of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer

Taiho Oncology, Inc. (U.S.), a subsidiary of Taiho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (Japan), today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved LONSURF (trifluridine and tipiracil), formerly known as TAS-102, for the treatment of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) who have been previously treated with fluoropyrimidine-, oxaliplatin- and irinotecan-based chemotherapy, an anti-VEGF biological therapy, and if RAS wild-type, an anti-EGFR therapy.

22 Sep 2015

VEGF family biomarkers ‘promising’ tools for pulmonary hypertension diagnosis

Two members of the vascular endothelial growth factor family are highly specific and moderately sensitive for the presence of pulmonary hypertension, report researchers.

10 Sep 2015

Hutchison MediPharma achieves primary endpoint in POC Phase II study to treat NSCLC patients

Hutchison China MediTech Limited today announces that Hutchison MediPharma Limited ("HMP"), its drug R&D subsidiary, successfully achieved the primary endpoint in the second proof-of-concept ("POC") trial of fruquintinib in patients with advanced non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer ("NSCLC") in China.

4 Sep 2015

Transplanting mesenchymal stromal cells derived from amniotic membranes can benefit eye diseases

A team of researchers in South Korea has successfully transplanted mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) derived from human amniotic membranes of the placenta (AMSCs) into laboratory mice modeled with oxygen-induced retinopathy (a murine model used to mimic eye disease).

20 Aug 2015

Risk for endophthalmitis no higher with Avastin, finds study

Eye injections of the drug Avastin, used to treat retinal diseases, bring no greater risk of endophthalmitis, a potentially blinding eye infection, than injections with the much more expensive drug Lucentis made by the same company, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Their findings are published today in JAMA Ophthalmology.

14 Aug 2015

Novel treatment target found for RV failure in PAH

Researchers have identified a molecular pathway by which downregulation of microRNA-126 contributes to right ventricular failure in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension.

10 Aug 2015

New study suggests novel ways to treat serous retinal detachment

Wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of severe vision loss in older individuals. AMD and other serious chronic eye problems that affect younger individuals result when fluid accumulates abnormally under or within the retina. A new study published in The American Journal of Pathology shows for the first time that the release of substances from mast cells may be a causal factor in this type of eye pathology, and inhibitors of this release may offer new ways to treat serous retinal detachment.

22 Jul 2015

Current and new treatments for AMD: an interview with Dr Alan Cruess, AMD Alliance International

For two decades beginning in the late 1970’s through 2001, clinicians relied upon laser photocoagulation in the treatment of wet AMD caused by choroidal neovascularization. Attempts to obliterate the neovascular lesions often led to acute central visual loss and often, even with modest success, the lesions recurred with even more vision loss.

21 Jul 2015

New findings point toward potential blood test to detect schizophrenia

High blood levels of a growth factor known to enable new blood vessel development and brain cell protection correlate with a smaller size of brain areas key to complex thought, emotion and behavior in patients with schizophrenia, researchers report in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

16 Jul 2015

Updated guidelines released for treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

Updated guidelines on the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) have been released by an international group of leading respiratory societies, The new guidelines, issued by the American Thoracic Society, the European Respiratory Society, the Japanese Respiratory Society, and the Latin American Thoracic Association, were published in the American Thoracic Society's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

15 Jul 2015

Potential molecular link identified between excess fat in the blood and blood vessel recovery in ischemia

The buildup of fat in the blood makes a bad situation worse - it not only raises a person's risk for heart attack or stroke but also impairs the growth of new blood vessels. How excess fat in the blood - a condition known as hyperlipidemia - blocks vessel growth was unclear, but new work by researchers at Temple University School of Medicine shows that a molecule known as caspase-1 plays a central role and that preventing its activity could be the key to building new blood vessels and restoring blood supply to oxygen-starved tissues.

10 Jul 2015

Globavir agrees to exclusively license novel oncology compound to Sorrento Therapeutics

Globavir Biosciences, Inc., a specialty biotechnology company developing small molecule drugs to treat cancer and infectious diseases, and Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc., an oncology company developing new treatments for cancer and associated pain, announced today that the companies have entered into an agreement under which Globavir exclusively licensed its novel oncology compound, BC001, to Sorrento Therapeutics.

9 Jul 2015