Allred CA, Gormley C, Venugopal I, Li S, McGuire MJ, Brown KC (2023) Tumor-specific intracellular delivery: peptide-guided transport of a catalytic toxin. Commun Biol 6(1):60. doi: 10.1038/s42003-022-04385-7 PMID: 36650239
Objective: The demonstration of a peptide optimized by chemical modifications for tumor specificity to deliver saporin, a catalytic toxin, specifically to cancer cells via both in vitro and in vivo.
Summary: Peptides rival antibodies in affinity and specificity and offer an alternative as cancer-targeting molecules. In comparison to antibodies, peptides have a faster development time and lower production cost. The authors isolated peptide MGS4, derived from a phage-displayed library using a non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell line as the target. MGS4 was modified to identify the minimal binding domain while also improving affinity and stability. Importantly, the authors provide data showing the peptide delivered saporin both in vitro and in vivo to cancer cells demonstrating anti-tumor efficacy in a mouse model.
Usage: In vitro delivery was performed by reacting biotinylated peptide with Streptavidin-ZAP (Cat. #IT-27) in a 1:1 molar ratio. Cells were treated for 6h at 37C. The drug was removed and replaced with media and after 72 hours, cell viability was measured with CellTiter-GLO. In vivo delivery was performed using biotinylated MGS4 reacted with Streptavidin-ZAP and administered via tail-veil injection (7.5 ug/100 ul) 2x/week for 2.5 weeks for a total of 5 treatments.
Related Products: Streptavidin-ZAP (Cat. #IT-27)