Tumor homing peptides for drug delivery and imaging.

Abstract

Tumor environment comprises of various signature molecules that are not expressed in such high levels in other organs and tissues in the body. This distinct feature of the tumor mass makes it an attractive target for anti-cancer drug delivery and molecular imaging. In vivo phage display has been used as a platform to exploit the tumor profile and various tumor homing peptides with different properties such as tumor and stage specificity have been discovered. Tumor homing peptides in conjugation with various anti-cancer agents and imaging probes have been validated in a variety of in vitro and in vivo tumor models. This review summarizes the recent progression in affinity-based cancer therapies with tumor homing peptides. Peptides with well documented homing specificities will be discussed and their applications will be described. We will also present current advances in the clinical development of the targeting peptides and introduce a novel class of tumor penetrating peptides.