Development of cancer-targeted nanoparticle vectors for human cancer therapy
Nanotechnology-based gene delivery systems are of great interest to us in terms of development of a practical gene therapy for non-small cell lung and pancreatic cancer. We have discovered that a unique cationic peptide NP made from two HIV-1 TAT peptides connected in tandem (dTAT) is very effective in plasmid DNA delivery in vivo. Because of the significant effect of the angiotensin II type 2 receptor gene to induce tumor cell death (Pickel et al., 2010), we are determining the efficacy of an AT2 plasmid DNA encapsulated in a dTAT NP vector conjugated with angiotensin II type 1 receptor agonist as a powerful cancer-targeted gene therapy for lung and pancreatic adenocarcinoma.