Abstract

Peptides As Disease-Specific Probes For Targeted Drug Delivery

Sazid Hussain, Research Assistant Professor, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute

Ligand-directed (synaphic) targeting is a therapeutic strategy that makes use of antibodies, peptides, small molecules, or other moieties that bind to molecular receptors specifically expressed in diseased tissues. Screening of phage display libraries in vivo identifies peptides that recognizes molecular changes at the diseased site. This method has been found to be a powerful and unbiased method to discover peptides that specifically home to diseased tissues, such as tumors, atherosclerotic plaques, tissue injuries, and sites of bacterial infection. The combination of nanoparticle delivery with specific tissue targeting peptides provides a particularly powerful means of improving drug delivery. Such a targeting strategy can therefore potentially improve the efficacy of drugs and reduce their side effects.