Cyclin-dependent kinase 5 regulates endothelial cell migration and angiogenesis.

Angiogenesis contributes to various pathological conditions. Due to the resistance against existing antiangiogenic therapy, an urgent need exists to understand the molecular basis of vessel growth and to identify new targets for antiangiogenic therapy. Here we show that cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (Cdk5), an important modulator of neuronal processes, regulates endothelial cell migration and angiogenesis, suggesting Cdk5 as a novel target for antiangiogenic therapy. Inhibition or knockdown of Cdk5 reduces endothelial cell motility and blocks angiogenesis in vitro and in vivo. We elucidate a specific signaling of Cdk5 in the endothelium; in contrast to neuronal cells, the motile defects upon inhibition of Cdk5 are not caused by an impaired function of focal adhesions or microtubules but by the reduced formation of lamellipodia. Inhibition or down-regulation of Cdk5 decreases the activity of the small GTPase Rac1 and results in a disorganized actin cytoskeleton. Constitutive active Rac1 compensates for the inhibiting effects of Cdk5 knockdown on migration, suggesting that Cdk5 exerts its effects in endothelial cell migration via Rac1. Our work elucidates Cdk5 as a pivotal new regulator of endothelial cell migration and angiogenesis. It suggests Cdk5 as a novel, pharmacologically accessible target for antiangiogenic therapy and provides the basis for a new therapeutic application of Cdk5 inhibitors as antiangiogenic agents.

Trisubstituted pyrazolopyrimidines as novel angiogenesis inhibitors.

Current inhibitors of angiogenesis comprise either therapeutic antibodies (e.g. bevacicumab binding to VEGF-A) or small molecular inhibitors of receptor tyrosin kinases like e.g. sunitinib, which inhibits PDGFR and VEGFR. We have recently identified cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (Cdk5) as novel alternative and pharmacologically accessible target in the context of angiogenesis. In the present work we demonstrate that trisubstituted pyrazolo[4,3-d]pyrimidines constitute a novel class of compounds which potently inhibit angiogenesis. All seven tested compounds inhibited endothelial cell proliferation with IC(50) values between 1 and 18 µM. Interestingly, this seems not to be due to cytotoxicity, since none of them showed acute cytotoxic effects on endothelial cells at a concentration of 10 µM,. The three most potent compounds (LGR1404, LGR1406 and LGR1407) also inhibited cell migration (by 27, 51 and 31%, resp.), chemotaxis (by 50, 70 and 60% in accumulative distance, resp.), and tube formation (by 25, 60 and 30% of total tube length, resp.) at the non-toxic concentration of 10 µM. Furthermore, angiogenesis was reduced in vivo in the CAM assay by these three compounds. A kinase selectivity profiling revealed that the compounds prevalently inhibit Cdk2, Cdk5 and Cdk9. The phenotype of the migrating cells (reduced formation of lamellipodia, loss of Rac-1 translocation to the membrane) resembles the previously described effects of silencing of Cdk5 in endothelial cells. We conclude that especially LGR1406 and LGR1407 are highly attractive anti-angiogenic compounds, whose effects seem to largely depend on their Cdk5 inhibiting properties.