Browsing by Author "Morfa, Camilo J."

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    Repurposing antimalarial aminoquinolines and related compounds for treatment of retinal neovascularization
    (PLOS, 2018-09-12) McAnally, Danielle; Siddiquee, Khandaker; Gomaa, Ahmed; Szabo, Andras; Vasile, Stefan; Maloney, Patrick R.; Divlianska, Daniela B.; Peddibhotla, Satyamaheshwar; Morfa, Camilo J.; Hershberger, Paul; Falter, Rebecca; Williamson, Robert; Terry, David B.; Farjo, Rafal; Pinkerton, Anthony B.; Qi, Xiaping; Quigley, Judith; Boulton, Michael E.; Grant, Maria B.; Smith, Layton H.; Ophthalmology, School of Medicine
    Neovascularization is the pathological driver of blinding eye diseases such as retinopathy of prematurity, proliferative diabetic retinopathy, and wet age-related macular degeneration. The loss of vision resulting from these diseases significantly impacts the productivity and quality of life of patients, and represents a substantial burden on the health care system. Current standard of care includes biologics that target vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), a key mediator of neovascularization. While anti-VGEF therapies have been successful, up to 30% of patients are non-responsive. Therefore, there is a need for new therapeutic targets, and small molecule inhibitors of angiogenesis to complement existing treatments. Apelin and its receptor have recently been shown to play a key role in both developmental and pathological angiogenesis in the eye. Through a cell-based high-throughput screen, we identified 4-aminoquinoline antimalarial drugs as potent selective antagonists of APJ. The prototypical 4-aminoquinoline, amodiaquine was found to be a selective, non-competitive APJ antagonist that inhibited apelin signaling in a concentration-dependent manner. Additionally, amodiaquine suppressed both apelin-and VGEF-induced endothelial tube formation. Intravitreal amodaiquine significantly reduced choroidal neovascularization (CNV) lesion volume in the laser-induced CNV mouse model, and showed no signs of ocular toxicity at the highest doses tested. This work firmly establishes APJ as a novel, chemically tractable therapeutic target for the treatment of ocular neovascularization, and that amodiaquine is a potential candidate for repurposing and further toxicological, and pharmacokinetic evaluation in the clinic.