Combinatorial Selection of Cell-Specific Peptides by Phage Display Experiments

摘要

Peptides that recognize specific cell types promise to be valuable tools both in research and clinical applications. We report the discovery of novel peptides that are highly specific for endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) by screening phage display libraries. Our strategy for isolation of ligand peptides is designed to allow using whole cells as an affinity matrix. We show that binding of phage clones is highly specific for EPC since no binding has been observed on human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC), HL-60 leukemia cells, human neutrophils and monocytes. To demonstrate the utility of the phage display selected, EPC-specific peptide sequences, free peptides have been synthesized and covalently immobilized to synthetic materials using chain transfer free radical polymerization chemistry. The results from this study contribute to the development of new strategies to be exploited for the design of biomimetic materials for tissue engineering applications.