※ VEGFR family introduction

    VEGFR (Vascular endothelial growth factor receptor) are receptor tyrosin protein kinase. Three members have been identified in human genome, VEGFR-1, VEGFR-2 and VEGFR-3. VEGFRs are characterized by their role as receptor of VEGF. VEGFR-1 can bind to VEGF-A, -B and PIGF, VEGFR-2 can bind to VEGF-A, -C, and -D, VEGFR-3 specificly binds to VEGF-C and -D. Like others RTKs, VEGFRs is intact catalytic inactive, the signaling by VEGFRs is initiated by binding of related ligand to extracellular domain, which will lead to the phosphorylation of several tyrosin residues in intracellular domain and get activate. Activate VEGFR will further recruit other signaling molecules to form large complexes via their SH2 domain or phosphotyrosine-binding domain. This will result in the signal transduction from cell surface to cytoplasm. VEGFs and their receptor VEGFRs mediate a lot of biological processes in endothelial cells including proliferation, migration, survival and angiogensis. In addition, VEGFs and VEGFRs also involved in many diseases, such as atherosclerosis, psoriasis, arthritis, neurodegenerative diseases, diabetic retinopathy and cancers. Targeting the VEGF signaling will help to develop drugs and treat the diseases (1,2).

Reference
1. Stuttfeld, E. and Ballmer-Hofer, K. (2009) Structure and function of VEGF receptors. IUBMB Life, 61, 915-922. PMID: 19658168
2. Ferrara, N. (2004) Vascular endothelial growth factor: basic science and clinical progress. Endocr Rev, 25, 581-611. PMID: 15294883