Mechanistic studies of a peptidic GRP78 ligand for cancer cell-specific drug delivery.
Major obstacles in the development of new therapeutic anticancer drugs are the low bioavailability of hydrophilic substances and the nonspecific toxicity toward healthy tissues. As such, cell-targeting oligopeptides have emerged as attractive drug delivery vehicles for a variety of different types of cargo. The recently identified peptide Pep42 binds to the glucose-regulated protein 78 (GRP78), which is overexpressed on the cell surface of human cancer cells and internalizes into these cells. Herein, we demonstrate how Pep42 can be utilized as a carrier for different types of cytotoxic drugs to specifically target human cancer cell lines in vitro in a strictly GRP78-dependent manner. Furthermore, the mechanism of internalization of Pep42 was elucidated and found to involve clathrin-mediated endocytosis. Pep42 subsequently colocalizes within the lysosomal compartment. Importantly, we also provide evidence that Pep42-conjugated quantum dots have the ability to selectively enrich in tumor tissue in a xenograft mouse model. Our results suggest that the highly specific GRP78-Pep42 interaction can be utilized for the generation of Pep42-drug conjugates as a powerful anticancer drug delivery system that could substantially enhance the efficacy of chemotherapy by increasing the drug-tumor specificity, thus minimizing the adverse side effects associated with conventional cancer therapeutics.
Liu
Ying
Y
The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology and Departments of Chemistry and Immunology, Worm Institute of Research and Medicine, and Department of Molecular and Experimental Medicine, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California 92037, USA.
Steiniger
Sebastian C J
SC
Kim
YoungSoo
Y
Kaufmann
Gunnar F
GF
Felding-Habermann
Brunhilde
B
Janda
Kim D
KD
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D017209:Apoptosis; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000378:metabolism; D002966:Clathrin / Q000378:metabolism; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems; D004705:Endocytosis; D000091342:Endoplasmic Reticulum Chaperone BiP; D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008024:Ligands; D008247:Lysosomes / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D018832:Molecular Chaperones / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D009368:Neoplasm Transplantation; D009374:Neoplasms, Experimental / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000378:metabolism; D010456:Peptides, Cyclic / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D010778:Photochemotherapy; D045663:Quantum Dots; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering / Q000235:genetics; D014183:Transplantation, Heterologous
D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D002966:Clathrin; D000091342:Endoplasmic Reticulum Chaperone BiP; C000717247:HSPA5 protein, human; D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins; C000717248:Hspa5 protein, mouse; D008024:Ligands; D018832:Molecular Chaperones; C513552:Pep42 peptide; D010456:Peptides, Cyclic; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering