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Heparanase |
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InSight's scientists were the first to clone the gene coding for Heparanase, a unique human enzyme playing a key role in cancer and inflammation. This discovery paved the way for the development of novel therapeutics in the fields of cancer, inflammation and autoimmune diseases, tissue regeneration, wound healing and others. InSight has developed a wide R&D platform to maximize the potential of its discoveries, and is regarded as the world leader in heparanase-related intellectual property and know-how ownership.
Heparanase is a glycosylated enzyme, an endo-ß-D-glucouronidase, capable of cleaving heparan sulfate at specific intrachain sites and involved in the catabolism of certain glycosaminoglycans.
Heparanase has a few major roles in the physiology of cancer:It
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induces angiogenesis, essential for tumor progression, by releasing angiogenic factors, such as bFGF and VEGF;
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enables invasion of the tumor by digesting the ECM of the surrounding tissue; |
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facilitates metastasis and the distribution of secondary tumors, enabling tumor cells to intravasate and extravasate by digesting polysaccharide components of the basement membrane of blood vessels; |
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is an adhesion molecule, (independent of its enzymatic activity), which has roles in cell adhesion and migration in the course of the metastatic process.
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Indeed, Heparanase is highly expressed in most solid tumors and is mutely expressed in most normal tissues.
Heparanase is also stored in certain blood cells, including platelets and neutrophils, and some evidence suggests that it is secreted by activated lymphocytes. It is believed that, as in the case of cancer cells, Heparanase promotes extravasation of immune cells and their migration towards the inflamed tissue, thus playing a crucial role in the course of inflammation and autoimmune diseases.
InSight's seminal paper on the cloning of the Heparanase gene and the experimental demonstration of Heparanase role in cancer and metastasis was published in the July 1999 issue of Nature Medicine (vol. 5, no. 7, pp. 793-802) and was covered in editorials in Science (vol. 285, pp. 33-34) and Nature Medicine (vol.5, no. 7, pp735-736).
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