"Polymultivalent" Polymer-Peptide Cluster Conjugates for an Enhanced Targeting of Cells Expressing αvβ3 Integrins

Bioconjug Chem. 2017 Sep 20;28(9):2241-2245. doi: 10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.7b00362. Epub 2017 Aug 21.

Abstract

A new class of "polymultivalent" ligands combining several ligand clusters and a water-soluble biocompatible polymer is introduced. These original conjugates bear two levels of multivalency. They are prepared by covalent coupling of a controlled number of tetrameric cRGD peptide clusters along a well-defined copolymer synthesized by RAFT polymerization. The presence of multiple copies of peptide clusters on the same polymer backbone resulted in a much-higher relative potency than the free cluster reference. Thanks to the "polymultivalency", up to ∼2 orders of magnitude potency enhancement was reached in a competitive cell adhesion assay (nanomolar-range IC50 values). In addition, confocal microscopy and flow cytometry demonstrated that fluorescent "polymultivalent" conjugates (emitting in the far-red/near-infrared region) were able to specifically and selectively label cells expressing αvβ3-integrin, the natural receptor of cRGD.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Cell Adhesion
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Drug Delivery Systems
  • Humans
  • Integrin alphaVbeta3 / analysis
  • Integrin alphaVbeta3 / metabolism*
  • Ligands
  • Microscopy, Confocal
  • Peptides / chemical synthesis
  • Peptides / chemistry
  • Peptides / metabolism*
  • Peptides, Cyclic / chemical synthesis
  • Peptides, Cyclic / chemistry
  • Peptides, Cyclic / metabolism*
  • Polymers / chemical synthesis
  • Polymers / chemistry
  • Polymers / metabolism*

Substances

  • Integrin alphaVbeta3
  • Ligands
  • Peptides
  • Peptides, Cyclic
  • Polymers
  • cyclic arginine-glycine-aspartic acid peptide