Common infant tumour has a Nox(4)ious requirement
Haemangiomas are the most common tumour of infancy. They are benign tumours derived from cells that line blood vessels (endothelial cells) and spontaneously regress as a child gets older.
Jack Arbiser and colleagues, at Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, have now provided new insight into the molecules that control haemangioma growth and found that inhibiting a key molecule substantially inhibits haemangioma growth in a mouse model. Specifically, the protein Nox4 was found to be crucial for haemangioma growth in a mouse model and the drug fulvene 5 was found to be a potent in vitro inhibitor of Nox4 and to substantially inhibit in vivo haemangioma growth. The authors therefore suggest that targeting Nox4, potentially using fulvene derivatives, might provide a way to attenuate haemangioma growth.
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