title: Charting the course across the blood-brain barrier.
abstract: The blood-brain barrier (BBB) presents a significant obstacle to delivery of targeted therapies to brain tumors. In this issue of the JCI, Staquicini and colleagues apply an in vivo phage-displayed library of random peptides to identify differentially expressed peptides that can be used to transport targeted agents across the intact BBB. The authors uncover a non-canonical, peptide-mediated iron-mimicry mechanism to induce transport of the transferrin/transferrin receptor complex across the BBB. They then demonstrate the ability of phage-targeting approaches to deliver therapeutic cargo and molecular imaging reporters across the BBB in an intracranial glioblastoma mouse model.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Nathanson
authors.forename: Paul S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Mischel
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D001812:Blood-Brain Barrier / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000503:physiopathology; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000503:physiopathology; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005909:Glioblastoma / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D007501:Iron / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D018716:Molecular Mimicry; D019151:Peptide Library; D011990:Receptors, Transferrin / Q000378:metabolism; D014168:Transferrin / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D002352:Carrier Proteins; D019151:Peptide Library; D011990:Receptors, Transferrin; D014168:Transferrin; D007501:Iron