Enzyme cleavable nanoparticles from peptide based triblock copolymers

Nanoscale. 2013 Jun 7;5(11):4829-39. doi: 10.1039/c3nr00706e. Epub 2013 Apr 24.

Abstract

A solid-phase synthesis based approach towards protease cleavable polystyrene-peptide-polystyrene triblock copolymers and their formulation to nanoparticulate systems is presented. These nanoparticles are suitable for the optical detection of an enzyme and have the potential for application as a drug delivery system. Two different peptide sequences, one cleaved by trypsin (GFF), the other by hepsin (RQLRVVGG), a protease overexpressed in early stages of prostate cancer, are used as the central part of the triblock. For optical detection a fluorophore-quencher pair is introduced around the cleavage sequence. The solid phase synthesis is conduced such that two identical sequences are synthesized from one branching point. Eventually, carboxy-terminated polystyrene is introduced into the peptide synthesizer and coupled to the amino-termini of the branched sequence. Upon cleavage, a fragment is released from the triblock copolymer, which has the potential for use in drug delivery applications. Conducting the whole synthesis on a solid phase in the peptide synthesizer avoids solubility issues and post-synthetic purification steps. Due to the hydrophobic PS-chains, the copolymer can easily be formulated to form nanoparticles using a nanoprecipitation process. Incubation of the nanoparticles with the respective enzymes leads to a significant increase of the fluorescence from the incorporated fluorophore, thereby indicating cleavage of the peptide sequence and decomposition of the particles.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Drug Carriers / chemistry
  • Humans
  • Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions
  • Male
  • Nanoparticles / chemistry*
  • Particle Size
  • Peptides / chemical synthesis
  • Peptides / metabolism*
  • Polystyrenes / chemistry*
  • Prostatic Neoplasms / metabolism
  • Prostatic Neoplasms / pathology
  • Serine Endopeptidases / metabolism*
  • Solid-Phase Synthesis Techniques
  • Trypsin / metabolism*

Substances

  • Drug Carriers
  • Peptides
  • Polystyrenes
  • Serine Endopeptidases
  • hepsin
  • Trypsin