Friday, 14 February 2020 | 12:00 noon
CREA Food & Nutrition Research Centre (Rome), presently acting as Science expert at the DG for Innovation and Research, DGSP Office IX, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. Rome, ITALY
Microbiome research in the field of agri-food: from soil to plants, from crops to food
(Host: V. Venturi)
Angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels from pre-existing vasculature, is a hallmark of cancer. In the last decades efforts have been taken to halt this process to impair tumor growth. However, the modest survival benefits from anti-angiogenic therapy compels researches to develop new strategies. One of the most promising approaches aims at normalizing the abnormal and leaky vasculature associated with tumors to improve drug delivery and hence, therapy efficacy. In this context, Multimerin-2, whose expression is often lost in tumor-associated vessels, represents a key component. Multimerin-2 is an extra-cellular matrix protein deposited along blood vessels where exerts a homeostatic and angiostatic function. Our recent results indicate that Multimerin-2 is necessary to maintain endothelial cell-cell junctions stability. The depletion of Multimerin-2 in endothelial cells leads to dismantlement of the VE-cadherin lining causing a dramatic increase of cell permeability. Our results pinpoint Multimerin-2 as a key molecule for the maintenance of blood vessel stability and suggest the possibility to develop a marker of chemotherapy efficacy based on the expression levels of Multimerin-2 within the tumor vasculature.