Development of liposomes decorated with homing peptides for targeted drug delivery and their application in the treatment of cancers causing high mortality

Tumor selectivity of drugs with low solubility or without functional group for conjugation could be improved by encapsulation into liposomes. Further enhancement of specificity might be reached with the attachment of tumor homing peptides to the surface of liposomes that can recognize tumor specific or overexpressed receptors on tumor cells. In our previous studies the best conjugation strategies were selected for the attachment of peptides to functionalized DSPE-PEG fatty acid derivative. Mass spectrometry was used efficiently to determine the structure of the conjugates. Advantage of peptide decorated drug loaded liposomes over unmodified liposome version could be observed both in vitro and in vivo. Therefore, further peptide decorated liposomes will be investigated. For this purpose neurotensin derivative with broad spectra of tumor recognition and more specific tumor homing peptides like α-MSH derivatives will be applied for the modification of liposomes. The in vivo experiments will be made in cooperation with National Institute of Oncology.

Gábor Mező, Levente Dókus, Ildikó Szabó, Gitta Schlosser, Norbert Szoboszlai