Obtustatin: A Potent Selective Inhibitor of α1β1 Integrin in Vitro and Angiogenesis in Vivo

C Marcinkiewicz, PH Weinreb, JJ Calvete, DG Kisiel… - Cancer research, 2003 - AACR
C Marcinkiewicz, PH Weinreb, JJ Calvete, DG Kisiel, SA Mousa, GP Tuszynski, RR Lobb
Cancer research, 2003AACR
A novel disintegrin, obtustatin, was purified from the venom of the Vipera lebetina obtusa
viper. Obtustatin is the shortest disintegrin yet described, containing only 41 amino acids. It
contains a similar pattern of cysteines to the short disintegrins echistatin and eristostatin but
contains the sequence KTS rather than RGD in its active site loop. Obtustatin is a potent and
selective inhibitor of α1β1 integrin. It does not inhibit the closely related integrin α2β1, nor a
panel of other integrins tested. It does not inhibit ligand binding to the recombinant α1 I …
Abstract
A novel disintegrin, obtustatin, was purified from the venom of the Vipera lebetina obtusa viper. Obtustatin is the shortest disintegrin yet described, containing only 41 amino acids. It contains a similar pattern of cysteines to the short disintegrins echistatin and eristostatin but contains the sequence KTS rather than RGD in its active site loop. Obtustatin is a potent and selective inhibitor of α1β1 integrin. It does not inhibit the closely related integrin α2β1, nor a panel of other integrins tested. It does not inhibit ligand binding to the recombinant α1 I-domain. Importantly, obtustatin potently inhibited angiogenesis in vivo in the chicken chorioallantoic membrane assay, and in the Lewis lung syngeneic mouse model, it reduced tumor development by half, confirming and extending previous results on the relevance of α1β1 integrin to angiogenesis and suggesting novel approaches to the generation of angiogenesis inhibitors.
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