Peptides-based therapy and diagnosis. Strategies for non-invasive therapies in cancer

Abstract

In recent years, remarkable progress was registered in the field of cancer research. Though, cancer still represents a major cause of death and cancer metastasis a problem seeking for urgent solutions as it is the main reason for therapeutic failure. Unfortunately, the most common chemotherapeutic agents are non-selective and can damage healthy tissues and cause side effects that affect dramatically the quality of life of the patients. Targeted therapy with molecules that act specifically at the tumour sites interacting with overexpressed cancer receptors is a very promising strategy for achieving the specific delivery of anticancer drugs, radioisotopes or imaging agents. This review aims to give an overview on different strategies for targeting cancer cell receptors localised either at the extracellular matrix or at the cell membrane. Molecules like antibodies, aptamers and peptides targeting the cell surface are presented with advantages and disadvantages, with emphasis on peptides. The most representative peptides are described, including cell penetrating peptides, homing and anticancer peptides with particular consideration on recent discoveries.

Keywords:

• Targeting cancer
• cancer receptors
• cell penetrating peptides
• tumour homing peptides
• anticancer peptides
• peptide vaccines

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Table 1. Advantages and disadvantages of therapeutic antibodies and aptamers vs peptides.

Additional information

Funding

The present study was financially supported by a grant of the Romanian Ministry of Research and Innovation, project number PN‐III‐P1‐1.2‐PCCDI‐2017‐0010/74PCCDI/2018, within PNCDI III.