Validation of human glioblastoma cell lines penetrating peptides identified by phage display

Abstract

Cell-penetrating peptides (CPP) are considered a minimally cytotoxic system which has great potential to promote an effective drug delivery into cells.The main application of CPPs is the internalization of proteins, peptides, nucleic acids or synthetic compounds into a target cell for diagnosis, treatment and prevention of certain diseases such as cancer, diabetes, skin diseases and others.Phage display technology has been used in vitro and in vivo for the identification of specific peptide ligands for different cell types. Among many peptides present in a phage library, this technique allows identifying those that bind specifically to a determined type of organ, tissue or cell population. After three biopanning cycles of phage display using human glioblastoma cell lines U-87MG, U-251 and A-172, peptides with promising ability of internalization were found.This project aims to validate these peptides by cellular internalization assays.