Isolation of Primary Hepatocytes for Testing Tumor Penetrating Peptides

Abstract

Methods for isolation of human primary cells is an important tool to be able to test the effect of several drugs for the treatment of diseases. Protocols have been described for the isolation of healthy and tumoral hepatocytes; however, the quality and the amount of the isolated cells is not satisfactory. We describe here protocols for the isolation of healthy and tumoral hepatocytes as well as the use of tumor penetrating and interfering peptides as new therapeutics. Peptides are showed to be safe drugs and taking into account recent improvements in peptide administration, biodelivery, and bioavailability. Tumor penetrating peptides fused to an interfering peptide have a great potential to become therapeutic agents.

Keywords: Interfering peptides; Liver cancer; Tumor penetrating peptides.