Reference #: 00925
The University of South Carolina is offering licensing opportunities for a therapeutic peptide delivery system for cancer treatment that can specifically target tumor tissue while being non-toxic to red blood cells.
Background:
The National Institutes of Health estimated that the annual costs of cancer top $226 billion. Researchers are dedicated to finding better treatments and have extensively explored therapeutic peptides (e.g. melittin) because they have wide-spectrum lytic properties and are less likely to develop resistance. However, their in vivo application is compromised by serious off-target toxicity.
Invention Description:
The invention is a therapeutic peptide delivery system, dual secured nano-bee (DSNB), which is able to target to tumor tissue specifically while sparing red blood cells during circulation. This DSNB system is effective on a wide-spectrum of cancers, including MCF-7 breast cancer, NCI/ADR-Res and SKOV-3 ovarian cancer cells, and HCT-116 colon cancer cell. For most of the tested cancer cell lines, DSNB killed 100% cells at the melittin concentration of 5 μM. Most importantly, DSNB showed no toxicity to red blood cells at the same concentration. This polymer-based nanoparticle system can also be applied for the delivery of other therapeutic peptides and proteins.
Potential Applications:
The peptide delivery system can be used in the treatment of a number of cancers and can also be applied for the delivery of other therapeutic peptides and proteins.
Advantages and Benefits: