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Active Targeting of Tumors through Conformational Epitope Imprinting
Author(s) -
Zhang Yan,
Deng Chunyue,
Liu Sha,
Wu Jin,
Chen Zhangbao,
Li Chong,
Lu Weiyue
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
angewandte chemie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1521-3757
pISSN - 0044-8249
DOI - 10.1002/ange.201412114
Subject(s) - epitope , nanocarriers , peptide , biophysics , chemistry , molecular imprinting , target protein , imprinting (psychology) , nanoparticle , nanotechnology , microbiology and biotechnology , biochemistry , antibody , materials science , biology , selectivity , gene , immunology , catalysis
Inspired by the knowledge that most antibodies recognize a conformational epitope because of the epitope’s specific three‐dimensional shape rather than its linear structure, we combined scaffold‐based peptide design and surface molecular imprinting to fabricate a novel nanocarrier harboring stable binding sites that captures a membrane protein. In this study, a disulfide‐linked α‐helix‐containing peptide, apamin, was used to mimic the extracellular, structured N‐terminal part of the protein p32 and then serve as an imprinting template for generating a sub‐40 nm‐sized polymeric nanoparticle that potently binds to the target protein, recognizes p32‐positive tumor cells, and successfully mediates targeted photodynamic therapy in vivo. This could provide a promising alternative for currently used peptide‐modified nanocarriers and may have a broad impact on the development of polymeric nanoparticle‐based therapies for a wide range of human diseases.