Neuropilin 1

Neuropilin-1 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the NRP1 gene.^[5][6][7] In humans, the neuropilin 1 gene is located at 10p11.22. This is one of two human neuropilins.

Function

NRP1 is a membrane-bound

Neuropilin 1 has been implicated in the vascularization and progression of cancers. NRP1 expression has been shown to be elevated in a number of human patient tumor samples, including brain, prostate, breast, colon, and lung cancers and NRP1 levels are positively correlated with metastasis.^{[11][12][13][14][15][16]}

In prostate cancer NRP1 has been demonstrated to be an androgen-suppressed gene, upregulated during the adaptive response of prostate tumors to androgen-targeted therapies and a prognostic biomarker of clinical metastasis and lethal PCa.^[11] In vitro and in vivo mouse studies have shown membrane bound NRP1 to be proangiogenic and that NRP1 promotes the vascularization of prostate tumors.^[17]

Elevated NRP1 expression is also correlated with the invasiveness of

As a co-receptor for VEGF, NRP1 is a potential target for cancer therapies. A synthetic peptide, EG3287, was generated in 2005 and has been shown to block NRP1 activity.^[18] EG3287 has been shown to induce apoptosis in tumor cells with elevated NRP1 expression.^[18] A patent for EG3287 was filed in 2002 and approved in 2003.^[19] As of 2015 there were no clinical trials ongoing or completed for EG3287 as a human cancer therapy.

Soluble NRP1 has the opposite effect of membrane bound NRP1 and has anti-VEGF activity. In vivo mouse studies have shown that injections of sNRP-1 inhibits progression of acute myeloid leukemia in mice.^[20]

References