Summary
Dr Amin Hajitou obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Liège in Belgium under the direction of Dr Claire-Michelle Calberg-Bacq. His Ph.D. training involved the use of retroviral vectors for the transfer and expression of oncogenes in normal mammary cells to investigate the pathways leading to cellular transformation of murine and human mammary cells. After his Ph.D. thesis, Dr Hajitou enhanced his skills in vector technologies by joining the laboratory of Professors Agnes Noel and Jean-Michel Foidart (University of Liège), using adenoviral vectors to systemically deliver inhibitors of tumour angiogenesis to tumour-bearing mice to assess therapy relevance. His interests extended to the elucidation of the biology implicated in cancer phenotypes. In 2002, Dr Hajitou joined the group of Professors Renata Pasqualini and Wadih Arap at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC of the University of Texas, USA). There, he acquired substantial expertise in bacteriophage (phage) technologies. Most importantly, he designed and developed a new generation of targeted hybrid viral vectors for targeted systemic gene delivery to cancer. Since 2007, Dr Hajitou has established his own research group, as a Lecturer, at Imperial College London, then Senior and Reader.
Selected Publications
Journal Articles
Reebye V, Bevan CL, Nohadani M, et al., 2010, Interaction between AR signalling and CRKL bypasses casodex inhibition in prostate cancer, Cellular Signalling, Vol:22, ISSN:0898-6568, Pages:1874-1881
Mitchell J, Paul P, Chen HJ, et al., 2010, Familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is associated with a mutation in D-amino acid oxidase., Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (u S A), Vol:107 (16), Pages:7556-7561
Hajitou A, 2010, Targeted Systemic Gene Therapy and Molecular Imaging of Cancer: Contribution of the Vascular-Targeted AAVP Vector, Advances in Genetics, Vol:69, ISSN:0065-2660, Pages:65-82
Trepel M, Stoneham CA, Eleftherohorinou H, et al., 2009, A heterotypic bystander effect for tumor cell killing after adeno-associated virus/phage-mediated, vascular-targeted suicide gene transfer, Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, Vol:8, ISSN:1535-7163, Pages:2383-2391
Paoloni MC, Tandle A, Mazcko C, et al., 2009, Launching a novel preclinical infrastructure: comparative oncology trials consortium directed therapeutic targeting of TNFalpha to cancer vasculature, Plos One, Vol:4
Mintz PJ, Cardó-Vila M, Ozawa MG, et al., 2009, An unrecognized extracellular function for an intracellular adapter protein released from the cytoplasm into the tumor microenvironment, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, Vol:106, Pages:2182-2187
Tandle A, Hanna E, Lorang D, et al., 2009, Tumor Vasculature-targeted Delivery of Tumor Necrosis Factor-α, Cancer, Vol:115, ISSN:0008-543X, Pages:128-139
Hajitou A, Lev DC, Hannay JA, et al., 2008, A preclinical model for predicting drug response in soft-tissue sarcoma with targeted AAVP molecular imaging, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, Vol:105, Pages:4471-4476
Hajitou A, Rangel R, Trepel M, et al., 2007, Design and construction of targeted AAVP vectors for mammalian cell transduction, Nature Protocols, Vol:2, Pages:523-531
Soghomonyan S, Hajitou A, Rangel R, et al., 2007, Molecular PET imaging of HSV1-tk reporter gene expression using [18F]FEAU, Nature Protocols, Vol:2, Pages:416-423
Hajitou A, Trepel M, Lilley CE, et al., 2006, A hybrid vector for ligand-directed tumor targeting and molecular imaging, Cell, Vol:125, Pages:385-398
Hajitou A, Pasqualini R, Arap W, 2006, Vascular targeting: recent advances and therapeutic perspectives, Trends in Cardiovascular Medicine, Vol:16, Pages:80-88
Marchiò S, Lahdenranta J, Schlingemann RO, et al., 2004, Aminopeptidase A is a functional target in angiogenic blood vessels, Cancer Cell, Vol:5, Pages:151-162
Hajitou A, Grignet C, Devy L, et al., 2002, The antitumoral effect of endostatin and angiostatin is associated with a down-regulation of vascular endothelial growth factor expression in tumor cells, Faseb J, Vol:16, Pages:1802-1804
Hajitou A, Sounni NE, Devy L, et al., 2001, Down-regulation of vascular endothelial growth factor by tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-2: effect on in vivo mammary tumor growth and angiogenesis, Cancer Research, Vol:61, Pages:3450-3457
Hajitou A, Deroanne C, Noël A, et al., 2000, Progression in MCF-7 breast cancer cell tumorigenicity: compared effect of FGF-3 and FGF-4, Breast Cancer Research & Treatment, Vol:60, Pages:15-28
Hajitou A, Baramova EN, Bajou K, et al., 1998, FGF-3 and FGF-4 elicit distinct oncogenic properties in mouse mammary myoepithelial cells, Oncogene, Vol:17, Pages:2059-2071
Noël A, Hajitou A, L'Hoir C, et al., 1998, Inhibition of stromal matrix metalloproteases: effects on breast-tumor promotion by fibroblasts, International Journal of Cancer, Vol:76, Pages:267-273
Deroanne CF, Hajitou A, Calberg-Bacq CM, et al., 1997, Angiogenesis by fibroblast growth factor 4 is mediated through an autocrine up-regulation of vascular endothelial growth factor expression, Cancer Research, Vol:57, Pages:5590-5597
Hajitou A, Calberg-Bacq CM, 1995, Fibroblast growth factor 3 is tumorigenic for mouse mammary cells orthotopically implanted in nude mice, International Journal of Cancer, Vol:63, Pages:702-709
Chapters
Hajitou A, 2010, Targeted Systemic Gene Therapy and Molecular Imaging of Cancer: Contribution of the Vascular-Targeted AAVP Vector, Adv Genet, Editor(s): Pasqualini, Pages:65-82
Conference
Hajitou A, 2010, A Hybrid Bacteriophage-Based Vector for Targeted Systemic Gene Delivery to Tumour Vasculature, 7th Annual Conference of the British-Society-for-Gene-Therapy, MARY ANN LIEBERT INC, Pages:491-492, ISSN:1043-0342
Trepel M, Stoneham CA, Mazarakis ND, et al., 2009, A Heterotypic Bystander Effect Observed for Tumor Cell Killing after AAVP-Mediated Vascular-Targeted Suicide Gene Transfer, 12th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Gene Therapy, NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP, Pages:S108-S108, ISSN:1525-0016