The natural compound chebulagic acid inhibits vascular endothelial growth factor A mediated regulation of endothelial cell functions.

Vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA) plays an important role in tumour angiogenesis and its angiogenic action is mainly mediated through its VEGF receptor 2 (VEGFR-2). Therefore drugs targeting VEGFA/VEGFR-2 are being presently used in the clinics for treatment of several types of solid malignant tumours. We here in report that low dose of chebulagic acid (CA), a hydrolysable tannin found in myrobalan fruits can inhibit VEGFA induced vascular permeability, endothelial cell proliferation, migration, tube formation and thereby, angiogenesis by suppressing VEGFR-2 phosphorylation. CA may thus be an effective and useful natural inhibitor of VEGFA mediated angiogenesis.