Expression of Tie2/Tek in breast tumour vasculature provides a new marker for evaluation of tumour angiogenesis

Antiangiogenic gene therapy targeting the endothelium-specific receptor tyrosine kinase Tie2

Angiogenesis is required for tumor growth and metastasis, and inhibition of angiogenesis is a promising approach for anticancer therapy. Tie2 (a.k.a Tek) is an endothelium-specific receptor tyrosine kinase known to play a role in tumor angiogenesis. To explore the therapeutic potential of blocking the Tie2 pathway, an adenoviral vector was constructed to deliver a recombinant, soluble Tie2 receptor (AdExTek) capable of blocking Tie2 activation. Two days after i.v. injection of AdExTek, the plasma concentration of ExTek exceeded 1 mg/ml and was maintained for about 8 days. Administration of AdExTek to mice with two different well established primary tumors, a murine mammary carcinoma (4T1) or a murine melanoma (B16F10.9), significantly inhibited the growth rate of both tumors (64% and 47%, respectively). To study the effect of ExTek on tumor metastasis, both tumor cell lines were coinjected i.v. with either AdExTek or a control virus. Mice coinjected with control virus developed numerous large, well vascularized lung metastases. In contrast, mice coinjected with AdExTek virus developed few, if any, grossly apparent metastases, and histologic examination revealed only small avascular clusters of tumor cells. Administration of AdExTek also inhibited tumor metastasis when delivered at the time of surgical excision of primary tumors in a clinically relevant model of tumor metastasis. This study demonstrates the potential utility of gene therapy for systemic delivery of an antiangiogenic agent targeting an endothelium-specific receptor, Tie2.

Tyrosine 1101 of Tie2 is the major site of association of p85 and is required for activation of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase and Akt

Tie2 is an endothelium-specific receptor tyrosine kinase that is required for both normal embryonic vascular development and tumor angiogenesis and is thought to play a role in vascular maintenance. However, the signaling pathways responsible for the function of Tie2 remain unknown. In this report, we demonstrate that the p85 subunit of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3-kinase) associates with Tie2 and that this association confers functional lipid kinase activity. Mutation of tyrosine 1101 of Tie2 abrogated p85 association both in vitro and in vivo in yeast. Tie2 was found to activate PI3-kinase in vivo as demonstrated by direct measurement of increases in cellular phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate and phosphatidylinositol 3, 4-bisphosphate, by plasma membrane translocation of a green fluorescent protein-Akt pleckstrin homology domain fusion protein, and by downstream activation of the Akt kinase. Activation of PI3-kinase was abrogated in these assays by mutation of Y1101 to phenylalanine, consistent with a requirement for this residue for p85 association with Tie2. These results suggest that activation of PI3-kinase and Akt may in part account for Tie2's role in both embryonic vascular development and pathologic angiogenesis, and they are consistent with a role for Tie2 in endothelial cell survival.