Bombesin receptor-targeted liposomes for enhanced delivery to lung cancer cells

• Mohammad J. Akbar,
• Pâmela C. Lukasewicz Ferreira,
• Melania Giorgetti,
• Leanne Stokes and
• Christopher J. Morris

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2553–2562, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.246

• receptor, gastrin releasing peptide receptor (GRPR), is widely expressed in cancers of the lung, pancreas and ovaries. Gastrin releasing peptide (GRP) is an autocrine growth factor in small cell lung cancer, which has very poor patient outcomes. High affinity antagonist peptides have been developed for in

• vivo cancer imaging. In this report we decorated pegylated liposomes with a GRPR antagonist peptide and studied its interaction with, and accumulation within, lung cancer cells. Results: An N-terminally cysteine modified GRPR antagonist (termed cystabn) was synthesised and shown to inhibit cell growth

• . Flow cytometric and microscopic studies showed that fluorescently labelled cystabn-decorated liposomes accumulated more extensively in GRPR over-expressing cells than matched liposomes that contained no cystabn targeting motif. Conclusion: The use of GRPR antagonistic peptides for nanoparticle