Molecules Against Cancer or for Long-Term Memory Storage

Presenter: Roger Tsien

Published: July 2015

Age: 18-22 and upwards

Views: 524 views

Tags: cell;peptide;polycation;protease;ACCP;memory;synapse

Type: Lectures

Source/institution: Lindau-Nobel

For cancer diagnosis and therapy, we are developing activatable cell penetrating peptides (ACPPs), synthetic molecules with a novel amplifying mechanism for homing to diseased tissues. ACPPs are polycationic cell penetrating peptides whose cellular uptake is minimized by a polyanionic inhibitory domain and restored if the peptide linker connecting the two domains is cleaved. Local activity of specific proteases cuts the linker and causes amplified adhesion and uptake in tumors. ACPPs sensitive to matrix metalloproteinases 2 and -9 enable magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), fluorescence-guided surgery, delivery of chemotherapy, and radiosensitization.