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Projekt Druckansicht

Einfluss des EphrinB2-EphB4 Systems auf die spinale Metastasierung

Fachliche Zuordnung Molekulare und zelluläre Neurologie und Neuropathologie
Klinische Neurologie; Neurochirurgie und Neuroradiologie
Förderung Förderung von 2014 bis 2020
Projektkennung Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 267716524
 
Erstellungsjahr 2022

Zusammenfassung der Projektergebnisse

Spinal metastasis is an emerging clinical phenomenon as a result of primary tumor therapy improvements. For patient’s, spinal metastasis involves a significant clinical burden including abrupt spinal cord compression, loss of motor capabilities, sensory disfunction, pain, thoracal instability, and other severe reductions in quality of live. As clinicians our arsenal to combat this devastating disease is limited. Manly caused by our lack of molecular knowledge about the disease. We set out to characterize the ephrinB2 – EphB4 cell-cell interaction pathway as a potential therapeutic target. Endothelial ephrinB2 was described as proangiogenic and the interaction with EphB4 expressed in tumor cells can be promoting or demoting depending on the tumor type and environment. It was unknown how interventions would play out. We expected an antiangiogenic effect and a tumor cell – endothelial cell interaction effect. We identified the ephrinB2-EphB4 interaction is most important during tumor cell seeding in the initial phase of metastasis. We performed different therapeutic interventions with and without ephrinB2 expression in endothelial cells. In the seeding phase of the metastasis blocking the pathway was metastasis promoting and resulted in faster spinal cord compressions and multiple metastatic loci. Interventions in the growth phase of the tumors after seeding to the spine, surprisingly had very little effect on the clinical outcome in mice. Even though, we found increased apoptosis when blocking the EphB4 tyrosine kinase. This did not manifest in a better clinical performance in this group. Early interventions in people are currently impossible in people, the detection of circulating tumor cells is possible, given a stringent diagnostic protocol that could identify the first event to initiate therapy in time. This must activate the ephrinB2 – EphB4 pathway, a therapy not developed to date. Concluding, we identified a new target involved in metastatic seeding, with therapeutic potential when activated and initiated in the early phase of metastasis.

Projektbezogene Publikationen (Auswahl)

 
 

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