The insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor (IGF-1R) is a transmembrane receptor with tyrosine kinase activity. The receptor plays a critical role in cancer. Using monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) against the IGF-1R, typically blocks ligand binding and enhances down-regulation of the cell-surface IGF-1R. Some MAbs such as cixutumumab are under clinical trial investigation. Targeting multiple distinct...

Protein trafficking pathways to plastids are directed by N-terminal targeting peptides. In plants this consists of a relatively simple transit peptide, while in organisms with secondary plastids (which reside within the endomembrane system) a signal peptide is appended to the transit peptide. Despite amino acid compositional differences between organisms, often due to nucleotide biases, the fea...

This work demonstrates successful delivery of a gene to EGFR-overexpressed cancer cells by using a rationally designed branched GE11 peptide as a targeting ligand. In addition, we exploited the effect of the divalent structure of the branched GE11 peptide on the gene delivery and tumor targeting efficiency, compared to the monovalent GE11 peptide. The GE11 or branched GE11-tethered polymers wer...

We designed, synthesized, and evaluated in vitro and in vivo a novel targeted anticancer polymeric prodrug containing multiple copies of tumor targeting moiety [synthetic luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) peptide, analog of LHRH] and anticancer drug (camptothecin). One, two, or three molecules of the targeting peptide and anticancer drug were covalently conjugated with bis(2-carboxye...

Despite the significant progress in molecular imaging technologies that has been made in recent years, the specific detection of neural cells still remains challenging. Here, we suggest the use of gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) modified with a brain-targeting peptide as a potential imaging candidate for detecting neural cells in vitro and in mice. AuNCs of less than 10 nm (dynamic light scattering a...

Fluorescein-based sensors are the most widely applied class of zinc probes but display adventitious localization in live cells. We present here a peptide-based localization strategy that affords precision in targeting of fluorescein-based zinc sensors. By appending the zinc-selective, reaction-based probe Zinpyr-1 diacetate (DA-ZP1) to the N-terminus of two different targeting peptides we achie...

Here we show, using the green fluorescent protein (GFP) fusion system, that an Arabidopsis thaliana zinc-metalloprotease (AtZn-MP) is targeted to both mitochondria and chloroplasts. A deletion mutant lacking the amino-terminal 28 residues, with translation initiation at the second methionine residue, was imported into chloroplasts only. However, a mutated form of the full-length targeting pepti...