Abstract

The identification of cancer cell-specific ligands is a key requirement for the targeted delivery of chemotherapeutic agents. Usually phage display system is employed to discover cancer-specific peptides through a biopanning process. Synthetic peptide array libraries can be used as a complementary method to phage display for screening and identifying cancer cell-specific ligands. Here, we describe a peptide array-whole cell binding assay to identify cancer cell-specific peptides. A peptide array library based on a lead dodecapeptide, p160, is synthesized on a functionalized cellulose membrane using solid phase chemistry and a robotic synthesizer. The relative binding affinity of the peptide library is evaluated by incubating the library with fluorescently labeled cancerous or non-cancerous cells. Thereby the assay allows picking peptides that show selective and high binding to cancerous cells. These peptides represent potential candidates for use in cancer-targeted drug delivery, imaging, and diagnosis.