NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Using a technique called hydrocarbon stapling, researchers have generated peptides that can destroy leukemia cells by activating an apoptotic pathway.
As reported in the September 3rd issue of Science, Dr. Stanley J. Korsmeyer, from Harvard Medical School in Boston, and colleagues used hydrocarbon stapling to improve the pharmacologic properties of BH3, a helical peptide that promotes apoptosis.
The stapling process rendered the new peptides protease-resistant, improved their ability to permeate cells, and enhanced their binding affinity to other apoptotic regulators.
In culture, the stapled peptides killed leukemia cells by specifically activating the apoptotic pathway. In mice with human leukemia xenografts, treatment with the peptide effectively blocked malignant growth.
“Hydrocarbon stapling of native peptides may provide a useful strategy for experimental and therapeutic modulation of protein-protein interactions in many signaling pathways,” the researchers point out.
Source: Science 2004;305:1466-1470. [ Google search on this article ]
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