Smart delivery of poly-peptide composite for effective cancer therapy

In the past decade, multifunctional peptides have attracted increasing attention in the biomedical field. Peptides possess many impressive advantages, such as high penetration ability, low cost, and etc. However, the short half-life and instability of peptides limit their application. In this study, a poly-peptide drug loading system (called HKMA composite) was designed based on the different functionalities of four peptides. The peptide compositions of HKMA composite from N-terminal to C-terminal were HCBP1, KLA, matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2)-cleavable peptide and albumin-binding domain. The targeting and lethality of HKMA to NSCLC cell line H460 sphere cells and the half-life of the system were measured in vivo. The results showed that the HKMA composite had a long half-life and specific killing effect on H460 sphere cells in vitro and in vivo. Our result proposed smart peptide drug loading system and provided a potential methodology for effective cancer treatment.