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Brittny's Project Page - RISE Summer 2007 |
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Intern: Brittny Glasper, Chemistry, Jackson State University
Mentor: Karen Dane
Faculty Supervisor: Patrick Daugherty
Department: Chemical Engineering |
TARGETING CANCER CELLS USING BACTERIA
Identifying cancer cell-specific binding molecules should greatly improve
cancer treatment therapies since many current methods are non-specific, attacking
target as well as normal cells. Peptides are an attractive targeting ligand
since they are naturally occurring, can be easily produced, and can be tailored
to become cancer cell-specific. By modifying an outer membrane protein (Omp A)
of the bacterium E. coli to contain random peptides on its surface, selections
were performed to isolate peptides that allowed for binding to tumor cells. In
addition to OmpA, the bacteria were engineered to express a green fluorescent
protein (GFP) that was used as a marker to indicate if bacteria were binding to
the tumor cells. These tumor-binding bacteria were isolated and characterized
using Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorting (FACS), and the DNA of the bacteria
was sequenced to determine the identity of the targeting peptide. Three
bacterial clones expressing peptides sequences known to bind breast tumor cells
were assayed for their ability to also internalize into the cells. Finding such
peptides will benefit cancer research greatly by allowing for more specific,
targeted therapies.
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