Study on the interaction between the nucleolin and its targeting peptides

Abstract

Cancer is a major cause of death worldwide, and early detection of cancer is required for favorable prognosis. Although complementary treatments such as targeted therapy and immunotherapy have discovered to overcome disadvantages of conventional cancer treatment, significant side effects still exist. Here, we developed diagnostic agent AGM-330 that has ability to overcome lack of tumor specificity, solubility and less side effects. We also confirmed that AGM-330 target Nucleolin (NCL). NCL participates in various cell metabolism including rDNA transcription, RNA metabolism, and ribosome assembly. Surface NCL can bind to various ligands to affect many physiological functions. However, cancer cells are known to overexpress and localize NCL on their cell surface. Thus, as a novel biomarker, we performed some experiments to characterize AGM-330 targeting NCL. We confirmed that AGM-330 has noteworthy binding affinity and most stable in tetrameric form. Further, we adjusted polyethylene glycol (PEG) length of AGM-330 to check correlation with PEG length and cell binding affinity. Also, it was confirmed that no differences of the binding affinity by adjusting the PEG length of AGM-330. Collectively, these results indicate that AGM-330 composed of short PEG can be a novel diagnostic agents for cancer treatment.