CELL -PENETRATING PEPTIDES AND CONSTRUCTS CONTAINING THEM CONSISTING 15-25 AMINO ACIDS OF TUMOR SUPRESSOR PROTEIN P14ARF OR P19ARF

摘要

A cell-penetrating peptide or a construct comprising such a peptide of 15 to 25 amino acids comprising at least amino acids 1 - 14 of a mature mammalian tumor suppressor protein ARF or a scrambled or partially inverted sequence thereof, such as the human p14ARF protein SEQ ID NO:2, and the partially inverted sequence thereof SEQ ID NO: 1 optionally linked to one or more of a cargo, such as an anti-cancer drug, a detection marker, a cell-homing peptide, such as a tumor-homing peptide, a receptor ligand, a linker, and a peptide spacer comprising a selective protease cleavage site coupled to an inactivating peptide, is disclosed. The cell-penetrating peptides of the invention derived from ARF can either be biologically inert or have biological activity in themselves. Further, a method of delivering a cargo into a target cell in vivo or in vitro, is described.