MMP9 and neoplasm: Recently, Nakabayashi et al. reported that HA-1077 suppresses neovascularization and tumor growth, in association with reduced expression of VEGF, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2, and MMP-9, as well as attenuating the phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1 and 2 (ERK1/2) and DNA binding activity of activator proteins (a key downstream transcriptional factor for ERK1/2) in malignant glioma cells, indicating that the anti-angiogenic effect of HA-1077 may be due to the combined inhibition of ROCK and the mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase (MEK)/ERK pathway [47].