An extensively studied protein has now been found to inhibit tumor growth and slow the development of new blood vessels for cancers to metastasize in a new study

However, a research team led by Paul Fox, Ph.D., of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine in Cleveland Clinic's Lerner Research Institute, has discovered that a variant of VEGF-A, one they call VEGF-Ax, actually decreases angiogenesis, cutting off the blood supply to tumors and inhibiting their development in animal models.
"This research is significant because it will open new avenues of angiogenesis and cancer research. It is important for patients as it could potentially lead to new diagnostic tools and improved treatments to reduce the spread of cancer." Dr. Fox said. "It is truly remarkable that a small change in a protein sequence leads not just to a protein with a different function, but one with a function completely opposite to the original. In the context of cancer, the small extension changes a very 'bad' protein into a very 'good' one."
VEGF-Ax is 22 amino acids longer that VEGF-A, and is formed when the ribosome—the cellular machinery that translates genes (actually messenger RNAs) into proteins—reads through its genetic stop sign in a process called programmed translational readthrough.
Source-Eurekalert