Selection of a new peptide with affinity for breast cancer

Authors and Affiliations:

Ana Cláudia Pereira^1,2,3,*, Débora Ferreira^1,2,*, Cátia Santos-Pereira^1,4,5, Tatiana F. Vieira⁴, Sérgio F. Sousa⁴, Goreti Sales³ and Lígia R. Rodrigues^1,2

¹ CEB - Centre of Biological Engineering, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal

² MIT-Portugal Program, Lisbon, Portugal

³ Biomark - Sensor Research, Superior Institute of Engineering of Porto, Porto, Portugal

⁴ UCIBIO@REQUIMTE - BioSIM, Department of Biomedicine, Faculty of Medicine University of Porto, Alameda Professor Hernâni Monteiro, Porto, Portugal

⁵ CBMA - Centre of Molecular and Environmental Biology, Department of Biology, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal

^* Ana Cláudia Pereira and Débora Ferreira contributed equally to this work as first authors

Abstract:

Breast cancer diagnosis remains a challenge, mostly due  to its heterogeneity. This reality translates in delayed treatments, increasing treatment aggressiveness and lower chances of overall survival. The conventional detection techniques, although becoming increasingly sophisticated each year, still lack the ability to provide reliable conclusions without being time consuming, expensive, and uncomfortable for the patients.

The identification of novel biomarkers for breast cancer research is therefore of utmost relevance for an early diagnosis. Moreover, breast cancer-specific peptide moieties can be used to develop novel targeted drug delivery systems. In this work, we used phage display to identify a novel peptide with specificity to the SK-BR-3 breast cancer cell line. Cytometry assays confirmed its specificity, while bioinformatics and docking studies predicted the potential biomarkers at the SK-BR-3 cells' surface. These findings can be potentially useful in the clinical context, contributing to more specific and targeted therapeutic solutions against HER2-positive breast cancer subtypes.

Journal: Chemical Biology & Drug Design

Link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/cbdd.13816