Vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR2) is a key regulator of tumor angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels from existing vasculature. VEGFR2 has been an attractive target for anti-cancer therapy. However, clinical application of available VEGR2 inhibitors has been challenged by limited efficacy and a wide range of side effects, potentially due to inadequate selectivity for VEGFR2.
In a study co-authored by scientists from Elevar Therapeutics and Oncolines in Cancer Chemotherapy and Pharmacology [1], the biochemical kinase activity profiles of eleven small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors are compared on VEGFR2 and 270 kinases representative of the human kinome. Rivoceranib [2], a kinase inhibitor under review at the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA), was identified as a highly selective VEGFR2 inhibitor. The comparative biochemical analysis highlights the potential for rivoceranib to address clinical limitations associated with off-target effects of currently available VEGFR2 inhibitors.
The study highlights the power of combining Oncolines’ ResidenceTimer platform and Carna Bioscience’s kinase activity profiling.
Figure: Radar plot showing residual activity of 270 kinases in the presence of rivoceranib (160 or 1600 nM) or 1000 nM of 10 FDA-approved reference tyrosine kinase inhibitors.
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