Study of the changes of receptor proteins and their signaling pathway as key players in targeted tumor therapy with peptide – drug – polymer nanostructures
A possibility to increase the therapeutic effect in targeted tumor therapy, similarly to the conventional chemotherapy, is the application of active compounds in combination. Nevertheless, in case of targeted therapy the homing peptides recognize different receptors on tumor cells may influence each other’s antitumor activity by the changes of receptor expression, phosphorylation, and key proteins involved in signaling pathways. On behalf of investigation of these changes and selection of the most active candidates for the studies, appropriate water soluble peptide – daunomycin conjugates had to be prepared that recognize EGF receptors. The results suggested that the attachment of hyper branched polyglycidol to the conjugates increased not only the solubility but also the biological activity of the conjugates compared to PEG. Based on these observations we can start to study the changes of the key proteins in targeted tumor therapy under combination treatments.
Béla Iván - László Kőhidai - Gábor Mező