Nature子刊：对付10种癌症的穿膜肽

　　

生物通报道：来自日本爱知县癌症中心研究所，琉球大学等处的研究人员发表了题为“Tumour lineage-homing cell-penetrating peptides as anticancer molecular delivery systems”的文章，发现一种称为细胞穿膜肽（Cell-penetrating peptides）的分子能有选择性的进入多种人类肿瘤细胞，这将有利于癌症的诊断和治疗。相关成果公布在Nature Communications杂志上。

研究人员以溶液中氨基酸排列方式不同的1万亿种肽为对象，研究各种癌细胞对它们吸收的难易程度，结果发现白血病细胞容易吸收肽CPP44。

研究人员让能够抑制癌细胞增殖的抗癌物质与CPP44结合，以治疗患白血病的实验鼠。结果，实验鼠体内的癌细胞得以更充分地吸收抗癌物质，癌组织缩小到原先的50%至30%，实验鼠生存时间有所延长。同时，这种治疗未引发明显的副作用。

通过这项研究，科研人员找到了大肠癌、乳腺癌、肺癌等10种癌细胞容易吸收的特定种类的肽。

参与研究的肿瘤病理学专家近藤英作介绍说，此前研究者发现易被癌细胞吸收的肽同时也易被正常细胞吸收，找到只容易被癌细胞吸收的肽十分不易。

研究人员指出，利用这些肽承担抗癌药物“搬运工”，能使药物被集中送达癌细胞，有助于抑制副作用。另外，即使肿瘤体积还很小，如果让这些肽与色素相结合并注入肌体，就能使肿瘤组织变色且便于观察，从而帮助尽早发现癌症。

原文摘要：
Tumour lineage-homing cell-penetrating peptides as anticancer molecular delivery systems

Cell-penetrating peptides have gained attention owing to their promise in noninvasive delivery systems. Among the identified cell-penetrating peptides, the TAT peptide has been preferentially used for transduction into cells of diverse origins. However, this activity is nonselective between neoplastic and non-neoplastic cells. Here we describe artificial cell-penetrating peptides that are selectively and efficiently incorporated into human tumour cells, according to their lineage. Ten representative tumour lineage-homing cell-penetrating peptides were obtained by screening of a random peptide library constructed using messenger RNA display technology, and some of the isolates were further modified by amino-acid substitution. Their advantageous tumour cell-targeting ability is corroborated in an in vivo mouse model for imaging and growth suppression of metastatic xenoplant tumours. These cell-penetrating peptides are potentially useful for the efficient targeting of human neoplasms in a tumour origin-dependent manner, and provide a framework for the development of peptide-based anti-tumour technologies.