A lanthanide-peptide-derived bacterium-like nanotheranostic with high tumor-targeting, -imaging and -killing properties. (June 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: He, Wangxiao; Yan, Jin; Wang, Lijuan; Lei, Bo; Hou, Peng; Lu, Wuyuan; Ma, Peter X.
• Is Part Of: Biomaterials. Volume 206(2019)
• Page Start: 13
• Page End: 24
• Publication Date: 2019-06
• Subjects: Peptide-based nanomedicines -- Biomimetic nanomaterials -- Self-assembled theranostic -- Tumor targeting -- Tumor imaging; Biomedical materials -- Periodicals; Biocompatible Materials -- Periodicals; Biomatériaux -- Périodiques; 610.28
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2019.03.026
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0142-9612

Abstract

Abstract: Nanostructures formed with bioactive peptides offer an exciting prospect in clinical oncology as a novel class of therapeutic agents for human cancers. Despite their therapeutic potential, however, peptide-based nanomedicines are often inefficacious in vivo due to low cargo-loading efficiency, poor tumor cell-targeting specificity and limited drug accumulation in tumor tissues. Here, we describe the design, via assembly of a p53-activating peptide termed PMI, functionalized PEG and fluorescent lanthanide oxyfluoride nanocrystals, of a novel nanotheranostic shaped in flexible rods. This lanthanide-peptide nanorod or LProd of bionic nature exhibited significantly enhanced tumor-targeting and -imaging properties compared to its spherical counterpart. Importantly, LProd potently inhibited tumor growth in a mouse model of human colon cancer through activating tumor suppressor protein p53 via MDM2/MDMX antagonism, while maintaining a highly favorable biosafety profile. Our data demonstrate that LProd as a multifunctional theranostic platform is ideally suited for tumor-specific peptide drug delivery with real-time disease tracking, thereby broadly impacting clinical development of antitumor peptides.