title: Use of a peptide enhancing the ability of radiation therapy to kill cancer cells: a patent evaluation of WO2012016918.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Faulty apoptosis is a known mechanism that leads to resistance to radiotherapy. The application (WO2012016918A1) deals with a peptide useful for disrupting this resistance mechanism and enhancing the efficiency of radiotherapy.
  
  
  METHODS
  A peptide consisting essentially of the N2 sequence of the RasGAP protein is conjugated to the HIV-TAT(48-57) cell permeation sequence. The DNA sequence encoding the peptide (TAT-RasGAP(317-326)) is synthesized and introduced into the host cells.
  
  
  RESULTS
  TAT-RasGAP(317-326) is demonstrated to potentiate the efficacy of γ-irradiation-mediated cell killing both in tumor cell lines and in mouse tumor models, disregarding the status of p53, but not in non-cancer cells.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  TAT-RasGAP(317-326) peptide favors apoptosis of tumor cells, but not normal cells in response to radiotherapy. The invention provides a specific method that is probably to be used in cancers that are radio-resistant.
authors.affiliation: Zhejiang University School of Medicine, The Second Affiliated Hospital and Cancer Institute (National Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Intervention), Department of Radiation Oncology, Hangzhou 310009, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Qichun
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wei
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000187:drug effects / Q000528:radiation effects; D015195:Drug Design; D020690:GTPase-Activating Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy; D010330:Patents as Topic; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*; D011487:Protein Conformation; D011836:Radiation Tolerance / Q000187:drug effects; D011838:Radiation-Sensitizing Agents / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship; D023041:Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays
chemical_list: D020690:GTPase-Activating Proteins; D010446:Peptide Fragments; D011838:Radiation-Sensitizing Agents; C525242:TAT-RasGAP(317-326)