Extracellular Matrix and Angiogenesis: New Paths for Targeted Therapy?

Dear Colleagues,

The extracellular matrix (ECM) is composed of collagens, elastic fibers, and numerous glycoproteins, as well as proteoglycans and glycosaminoglycans displaying distinct physical, biochemical, and biomechanical properties. The ECM is the home where cells live and plays a vital role in maintaining tissue homeostasis.

An overwhelming amount of evidence demonstrates that the ECM is not only a mere scaffold providing mechanical support to the cells, but it also interacts with cell surface receptors and significantly modulates cell behavior, affecting their viability, proliferation, and migration. Furthermore, the ECM functions as a reservoir of growth factors modulating their activity and affinity with the cognate receptors.

For these reasons, during embryonic development and organ homeostasis, the ECM composition is tightly regulated; however, in diseases, such as cancer, it is extensively remodelled due to altered expression, and increased fragmentation mediated by matrix-degrading enzymes. As a consequence, the abnormal ECM composition as well as the newly generated protein fragments affect cancer progression either directly, by promoting cellular transformation and metastasis, or indirecly, impinging on mircoenvironmental cues such as the inflammatory response and angiogenesis, the development of new blood vessels from pre-existing vasculature.

Anti-angiogenic therapy has been approved for the treatment of number of tumors; however, the efficacy from the use of these costly drugs did not meet expectations. Thus, the development of predictive biomarkers and/or new therapeutic targets is a highly expected clinical need, and the ECM represents a vast meadow to graze in this perspective.

For this Special Issue of Biomolecules entitled “Extracellular Matrix and Angiogenesis: New Paths for Targeted Therapy?”, I encourage the submission of your contributions, either in the form of original research articles or reviews highlighting the translational potential of ECM cues in anti-angiogenic and targeted therapy.

Dr. Maurizio Mongiat
Guest Editor
Dr. Franck Chiappini
Co-Guest Editor

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• extracellular matrix
• angiogenesis
• lymphangiogenesis
• tumor microenvironment
• biomarkers
• targeted therapy