Vascular endothelial growth factor A, Vascular endothelial growth factor B, and Placental growth factor (VEGF/PlGF)

The Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) family ligands, specifically VEGF-A, VEGF-B, and Placental Growth Factor (PlGF), are critical regulators of physiological and pathological angiogenesis and vascular permeability (UniProt P15692, P49765, P49763) [2]. VEGF-A is the primary driver of blood vessel growth, while VEGF-B and PlGF play specialized roles in pathological vessel formation and inflammatory cell recruitment. Overexpression of these factors is a hallmark of neovascular age-related macular degeneration and various solid tumors, where they promote the growth of leaky, abnormal vessels (Papadopoulos et al., 2012) [3]. Therapeutic agents like aflibercept are designed as traps that mimic the binding domains of native receptors to capture these ligands in the circulation or local tissue. By sequestering these growth factors, these drugs effectively inhibit the signaling pathways that lead to vision loss in ocular diseases and tumor progression in oncology.

Other names

VEGFVPFPGFPlacental growth factorVascular permeability factorVEGF-AVEGF-BVEGF-A165VEGF-A121PlGF-1PlGF-2

Ligand sequestration via a recombinant fusion protein (decoy receptor) that binds to circulating VEGF-A, VEGF-B, and PlGF, preventing their interaction with VEGFR-1 and VEGFR-2 (FDA Label: Eylea; Papadopoulos et al., 2012) [1, 3].