Designing a drug to combat dangerous circulation problems

Reversing peripheral vascular disease by targeting anti-angiogenic VEGFs

Many people with heart and circulatory disease have arteries that progressively narrow and block, cutting off blood supply to the tissues beyond. In about half of these cases, the body tries to circumvent this problem by growing new blood vessels. However, in many people – and most people with diabetes – the body can’t do this. This can lead to pain in the legs, and eventual limb amputation, and life-threatening conditions such as heart failure. In people with circulatory disease that affects the legs – peripheral artery disease – these researchers proved that healthy blood vessel growth is disrupted due to white blood cells producing the wrong form of a protein, called VEGF-A165b. They have made an antibody that blocksVEGF-A165b, but this is not currently suitable to give to patients. So, in this project they will make a version that can be given to human patients, make it more effective, and test how it affects cells grown in the laboratory. They will also see whether this would be an effective treatment in animals with peripheral arterial disease. At the end of the project they aim to have a drug that blocks the VEGF-A165b, and so allows regrowth of vital blood vessels. The researchers’ long-term goal is to develop a treatment for patients suffering from peripheral artery disease.