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Updated: May 2, 2026
A Simple Bioassay for the Evaluation of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factors
Published on: March 15, 2016
Microplate-based screening for small molecule inhibitors of neuropilin-2/vascular endothelial growth factor-C
Matthew W Parker1, Craig W Vander Kooi1
1Center for Structural Biology, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40536, USA.
Abstract:
Vascular endothelial growth factor-C (VEGF-C) is a secreted growth factor essential for lymphangiogenesis. VEGF-C functions in both physiological and pathological lymphangiogenesis, particularly in tumor metastasis, making it an attractive therapeutic target. Members of two families of cell surface receptors transduce VEGF-C signals: neuropilin-2 (Nrp2) and VEGF-receptor (VEGFR)-2/3. Nrp2 is a promising target for inhibition because it is highly expressed in lymphatic vessels. Here we describe a microplate-based assay for discovery of VEGF-C/Nrp2 inhibitors. We optimize this assay for use in screening an inhibitor library and identify three novel Nrp2/VEGF-C binding inhibitors from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Collection small molecule library.
