Elastin-like polypeptide for improved drug delivery for anticancer therapy: preclinical studies and future applications

Abstract

Introduction: Despite their poor specificity, small molecule drugs are considered more powerful and effective than other current chemotherapies. A promising method for targeting these anticancer drugs to tumors, elastin-like polypeptides (ELP), has recently emerged. When an anticancer drug that has been conjugated to an ELP is administered, and focal hyperthermia applied, the thermoresponsive properties and enhanced permeability and retention effects of the ELP facilitate drug aggregation within tumor tissues. By incorporating a cell penetrating peptide onto this ELP-chemotherapeutic construct, even greater drug uptake into tumor cells can be achieved.

Areas covered: The review explores the preclinical study progress of ELP-based drug delivery technology and discusses its potential in cancer therapy. Recent experimental work has shown that a delivery construct consisting of an ELP-therapeutic peptide (e.g., the c-Myc-inhibitory peptide, or the p21^WAF1/CIP1-derived peptide), as well as ELP-small molecule drugs (e.g., doxorubicin, paclitaxel), can be thermally targeted to accumulate in tumors and diminish their growth.

Expert opinion: ELP drug delivery technology is complementary and synergistic to current drug delivery modalities and based on existing hyperthermia technology. By using this technology to achieve chemotherapeutic targeting, efficacy can be improved and side effects reduced in comparison with current regimens, providing treatment alternatives and/or augmenting current therapies for cancer treatment.

Keywords:

• anticancer therapy
• drug delivery
• lastin-like polypeptide
• thermally targeting

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Ms. Jo Anne Fordham for critical reading and editorial assistance of the manuscript.

Declaration of interest

The authors were supported by National Science Foundation (IIP-1321375), National Science Foundation (CBET-0931041), and iCorp program of National Science Foundation (IIP-1264214). D Raucher is the CEO of Thermally Targeted Technology Inc. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

Notes

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