Tumor targeting by peptide decorated gold nanoparticles

Cancer remains one of the most important challenges in biomedical sciences. Chemotherapeutic agents are very potent molecules that exhibit a significant level of toxicity in numerous tissues of the body, particularly those characterized by high proliferative activity, such as bone marrow. The scenario is even more complex in the case of the central nervous system, and in particular brain tumors, where the blood brain barrier limits the efficacy of drug therapies. Integrins, transmembrane proteins widely expressed in different types of cancer (glioblastoma, melanoma, breast cancer), regulate the angiogenic process and play a pivotal role in tumor growth and invasion. Here we report a nanotechnology strategy based on the use of gold nanoparticles decorated with an arginine-glycine-aspartic acid-like peptide for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Two hours after administration in mice, the accumulation of the peptide decorated nanoparticles in subcutaneous tumor was ~ 4-fold higher than that of uncoated ...