An FGF1:FGF2 chimeric growth factor exhibits universal FGF receptor specificity, enhanced stability and augmented activity useful for epithelial proliferation and radioprotection

Fibroblast Growth Factors and their Emerging Cancer-Related Aspects

“…FGF-1 and FGF-2 are known potent mitogenic agents [133]. The other FGFs such as FGF-3, -4 and -5 have also been related to maintaining the proliferative properties of individual cancer cells lines [134,135]. Cell survival by anti-apoptotic mechanism is, indeed, an alluring process that assists the tumor cells to escape the body defense attacks and in turn, show resistance to different therapeutic agents.…”

Physiological Functions and Underlying Mechanisms of Fibroblast Growth Factor (FGF) Family Members: Recent Findings and Implications for Their Pharmacological Application

“…42) Polypeptide growth factors generally lose activity during storage, which is in part attributable to degradation of the active three-dimensional fold of the protein. We therefore compared the time-dependent changes in the emission spectra of FGFC and FGF1.…”

“…42) Upon application of a polypeptide growth factor to a wound or other tissue damage, it is susceptible to degradation by proteases expressed in both the tissue and the infiltrating inflammatory cells. To examine their ability to serve as an exogenously applied therapeutic agent, we compared the susceptibility of FGFC, FGF1 and FGF2 to trypsin digestion in vitro.…”

“…40,41) This probably explains why the biological effects of FGF18 and FGF7/FGF10 differ so significantly. 42,43) Because FGFs exert strong biological effects in numerous pathophysiological contexts, they are thought to be promising agents for various pharmaceutical applications. However, the instability of their wild-type forms generally makes their direct use as drugs problematical.…”

Evaluation of Bioactivity and Effect of Polymeric Stabilizers During Heat Treatment for the Unfolded Fraction of Human Epidermal Growth Factor

“…Several reports have described the enhancement of the biological stability of FGF [8][9][10][11][12][13]. Zakrzewska et al developed multiple mutants of FGF-1 with a highly stable conformation ; the mutants showed denaturation temperatures up to 27 degrees higher than that of wildtype FGF-1, and all mutants were biologically competent in several biological assays [8].…”