We have identified small peptides that can target the lining of normal organs or tumor vessels but not normal vessels. These peptides were isolated from a large collection of peptides that are present on the surface of small, virus-like particles known as phages. The phages are injected into the blood, and those that bind to specific blood vessels are isolated. This technology, called in vivo phage display, is now being used to identify the unique molecular addresses of vessels in human vasculature. In another application, phages are being used in blood samples to identify novel tumor markers for the production of anticancer vaccines customized for individual cancer patients.
The potential range of applications for phage-display random peptide libraries is quite broad, and in the past decade, considerable progress has been made in the development of screening methods in which the peptide libraries are used to isolate ligands. The research in our laboratory focuses on exploring the heterogeneity of blood vessels through this technology in order to further our understanding of tumor endothelium specificity and to define the role of endothelial cell markers in angiogenesis and metastasis.
Selected Publications: Kolonin MG, Pasqualini R, Arap W. Teratogenicity induced by targeting a placental immunoglobulin transporter. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 99:13055-13060, 2002 Arap W, Kolonin MG, Trepel M, Lahdenranta J, Cardo-Vila M, Giordano RJ, Mintz PJ, Ardelt PU, Yao VJ, Vidal CI, Chen L, Flamm A, Valtanen H, Weavind LM, Hicks ME, Pollock RE, Botz GH, Bucana CD, Koivunen E, Cahill D, Troncoso P, Baggerly KA, Pentz RD, Do KA, Logothetis CJ, Pasqualini R. Steps toward mapping the human vasculature by phage display. Nat Med 8:121-127, 2002 Giordano RJ, Cardo-Vila M, Lahdenranta J, Pasqualini R, Arap W. Biopanning and rapid analysis of selective interactive ligands. Nat Med 7:1249-1253, 2001 Kolonin M, Pasqualini R, Arap W. Molecular addresses in blood vessels as targets for therapy. Curr Opin Chem Biol 5:308-313, 2001 Copyright 2009 The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, U.S.A. All rights reserved.