Phage display screening of therapeutic peptide for cancer targeting and therapy

Recently, phage display technology has been announced as the recipient of Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2018. Phage display technique allows high affinity target-binding peptides to be selected from a complex mixture pool of billions of displayed peptides on phage in a combinatorial library and could be further enriched through the biopanning process; proving to be a powerful technique in the screening of peptide with high affinity and selectivity. In this review, we will first discuss the modifications in phage display techniques used to isolate various cancer-specific ligands by in situ, in vitro, in vivo, and ex vivo screening methods. We will then discuss prominent examples of solid tumor targeting-peptides; namely peptide targeting tumor vasculature, tumor microenvironment (TME) and over-expressed receptors on cancer cells identified through phage display screening. We will also discuss the current challenges and future outlook for targeting peptide-based therapeutics in the clinics.

Character of breast cancer stromal cells and regulation on tumor cells / 上海第二医科大学学报

Contrary to being an idle bystander,the surrounding tumor microenvironment or stroma,actively participates in,and contributes to tumor progression directly or indirectly.It is evident that tumor stromal cells exhibit specific tumor-suppressive and tumor-promoting abilities that serve to regulate neoplastic growth of the epithelium.Due to the mounting evidence demonstrating the far-reaching effects of stroma during the process of malignant transformation,the involvement of stroma in cancer progression has become an area of intense investigations in recent years.