噬菌体展示技术体内筛选的研究进展

噬菌体展示技术体内筛选是直接将噬菌体肽库注射到动物体内,筛选与活体内某些器官或组织有特异结合活性的小肽。噬菌体展示技术的体内筛选在血管靶向肽的筛选、肿瘤组织靶向肽的筛选、免疫反应的研究和相关疾病治疗、监测方面都有广泛的应用前景。     

99mTc标记丝状噬菌体肽库及其在正常小鼠体内的分布

利用噬菌体展示技术已选出了多条与靶结合的肽.然而,即使是体内直接筛选得到的,肽与肿瘤或靶器官的体内结合并不理想.为了更好地理解噬菌体在体内的循环,通过MAG399mTc标记噬菌体肽库,研究了肽库在体内分布.体内分布实验结果显示,99mTc-噬菌体主要分布在肝和脾中,而心脏、肌肉、脑和胰腺这些器官或组织中的分布非常低.99mTc-噬菌体在胃、肠和骨中的累积,随着时间延长在不断升高,其他器官中的吸收则在不断降低.从5min到30min,99mTc-噬菌体在血中清除迅速.当噬菌体在体内循环足够长的时间后,一些噬菌体颗粒可以穿透血管进入并内化在器官或组织中.总之,为了筛选具有高特异性和亲和性的肽,应该根据靶器官和筛选部位的不同,在筛选前确定合适的噬菌体在体内的循环时间.     

99mTc标记丝状噬菌体肽库及其在正常小鼠体内的分布

利用噬菌体展示技术已选出了多条与靶结合的肽. 然而,即使是体内直接筛选得到的,肽与肿瘤或靶器官的体内结合并不理想. 为了更好地理解噬菌体在体内的循环, 通过MAG3 ^99mTc标记噬菌体肽库,研究了肽库在体内分布. 体内分布实验结果显示,^99mTc-噬菌体主要分布在肝和脾中,而心脏、肌肉、脑和胰腺这些器官或组织中的分布非常低. ^99mTc-噬菌体在胃、肠和骨中的累积,随着时间延长在不断升高,其他器官中的吸收则在不断降低. 从5 min到30 min,^99mTc-噬菌体在血中清除迅速. 当噬菌体在体内循环足够长的时间后,一些噬菌体颗粒可以穿透血管进入并内化在器官或组织中. 总之,为了筛选具有高特异性和亲和性的肽,应该根据靶器官和筛选部位的不同,在筛选前确定合适的噬菌体在体内的循环时间.     

多能干细胞诱导分化为肾脏类器官的研究进展与挑战

用于分化为多种类型细胞的多能干细胞(PSC)体外培养技术已被广泛应用于生物学领域中。由PSC分化而来的肾脏类器官可基本还原生物体内肾脏的组织结构和部分功能,在肾脏疾病模型研究和药物筛选中有重要作用,继续改善肾脏类器官的结构、功能和成熟度将会对肾脏再生治疗提供极大的帮助。研究肾脏类器官的重点在于体外准确模拟体内肾脏的发育过程。本文着重归纳了近十年来对胚胎肾发育过程研究的重点,对肾脏类器官分化技术的几个关键方案进行总结、分析和比较,并探讨肾脏类器官在分化研究和应用中将面临的挑战。     

血管特异性体内噬菌体展示:靶向治疗应用

血管内皮上可表达不同的受体,采用噬菌体展示的方法已筛选出了一些靶向于组织特异性内皮细胞受体的肽或抗体。这些肽或抗体可用于生成靶向治疗复合物或影像试剂。目前,筛选方法包括体外途径、动物模型和患者体内途径。绘制血管的“功能图谱”,将在临床上有利于对癌症或其他显示特殊血管特性的疾病进行治疗。     

类器官的应用研究进展

类器官是利用干细胞的自我更新和分化能力,在体外培养形成的一种微小组织器官类似物,在很大程度上具有体内相应器官的功能。迄今为止,在3D培养条件下,已经成功培养出多种类器官如肺、胃、肠、肝和肾等类器官。它们不仅可作为组织器官的替代品用于药物和临床研究,还可用于体内器官移植。本文综述了类器官在药物毒性检测、药效评价和新药筛选中的作用以及利用类器官建立疾病模型、研究组织器官发育和类器官在精准医疗、再生医学中的价值。     

重离子射线局部照射技术在昆虫机能解析中的应用

为了探索重离子射线局部照射使昆虫体内某一特定的组织或器官失去活性这一放射线显微手术技术的有效性和可能性,用碳离子射线（¹²C⁵⁺,18.3MeV/u）对家蚕Bombyx mori幼虫进行了全体照射或局部照射。 研究结果表明： 与全体照射不同,局部照射后的个体与对照个体在存活率及茧质等性状上没有明显的差异,只是由于照射剂量及照射部位的不同,在照射部位出现局部的影响。对4龄第3天幼虫的造血器官进行局部照射后,其造血功能遭到破坏,血液中的游离血球数明显下降。因此利用重离子射线局部照射技术能够替代某些传统的外科手术,破坏昆虫体内特定的组织或器官,以便进行该器官或组织的机能研究。     

类器官在再生医学中的应用

类器官是干细胞在体外基质材料支撑条件下培养出来的一种三维微器官,与来源组织器官高度相似。类器官技术为基础研究、药物筛选、再生医学等领域提供了一个新的强大的研究模型和技术手段。再生医学的目的是帮助组织或器官恢复其正常的生理功能,通过与组织工程或基因工程相结合,类器官为再生医学提供了新的移植物来源。该文将介绍类器官在再生医学中的应用,并讨论该领域发展过程中所面临的主要挑战。     

光学分子影像技术及其在药物研发领域的应用

光学分子影像技术是一种发展迅速的生物医学影像技术,能够利用生物发光技术或荧光蛋白等,对生物体内特定的生物过程进行无创的定性或定量研究。应用该技术可以对药物进行筛选,选取具有潜在治疗效果的药物进行后续研究,而终止对可能无效药物的研究,同时可以评价药物对肿瘤的代谢、增殖、血管形成、凋亡和组织乏氧等方面的影响。本文主要介绍光学分子影像技术及其在药物研发,尤其是抗肿瘤药物研发领域的应用。     

类器官组织在感染性疾病研究中的应用

类器官(organoid)是体外3D培养组织干细胞所形成的多功能细胞团,具有自身增殖和多向分化的能力,在空间和结构上与来源器官组织的基因、结构和功能相似,可用于模拟体内组织细胞生长、分化及器官形成过程,在药物筛选与评价、生物医学材料及组织工程等方面具有重要的应用潜能。当前在感染性疾病研究方面,越来越多数据表明不同类器官组织可用于在体外模拟病原入侵和引发疾病过程。鉴于此,本文对类器官组织在病原感染相关疾病模型上的研究进展及其应用前景进行综述。     

In vivo phage display — A discovery tool in molecular biomedicine

In vivo phage display is a high-throughput method for identifying target ligands specific for different vascular beds. Targeting is possible due to the heterogeneous expression of receptors and other antigens in a particular vascular bed. Such expression is additionally influenced by the physiological or pathological status of the vasculature. In vivo phage display represents a technique that is usable in both, vascular mapping and targeted drug development. In this review, several important methodological aspects of in vivo phage display experiments are discussed. These include choosing an appropriate phage library, an appropriate animal model and the route of phage library administration. In addition, peptides or antibodies identified by in vivo phage display homing to specific types of vascular beds, including the altered vasculature present in several types of diseases are summarized. Still, confirmation in independent experiments and reproduction of identified sequences are needed for enhancing the clinical applicability of in vivo phage display research.     

Biodistribution of filamentous phage peptide libraries in mice

In vivo phage display is a new approach to acquire peptide molecules that bind stably to a given target. Phage peptide display libraries have been selected in mice and humans and numerous vasculature-targeting peptides have been reported. However, in vivo phage display has not typically produced molecules that extravasate to target specific organ or tumor antigens. Phage selections in animals have been performed for very short times without optimization for biodistribution or clearance rates to a particular organ. It is hypothesized that peptides that home to a desired antigen/organ can be obtained from in vivo phage experiments by optimization of incubation times, phage extraction and propagation procedures. To accomplish this goal, one must first gain a better understanding of the in vivo biodistribution and rate of clearance of engineered phage peptide display libraries. While the fate of wild type phage in rodents has been reported, the in vivo biodistribution of the commonly used engineered fd-tet M13 phage peptide display libraries (such as in the fUSE5 vector system) have not been well established. Here we report the biodistribution and clearance properties of fd-tet fifteen amino acid random peptide display libraries in fUSE5 phage in three common mouse models employed for drug discovery - CF-1, nude, and SCID mice.     

Phage display screening of therapeutic peptide for cancer targeting and therapy

Recently, phage display technology has been announced as the recipient of Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2018. Phage display technique allows high affinity target-binding peptides to be selected from a complex mixture pool of billions of displayed peptides on phage in a combinatorial library and could be further enriched through the biopanning process; proving to be a powerful technique in the screening of peptide with high affinity and selectivity. In this review, we will first discuss the modifications in phage display techniques used to isolate various cancer-specific ligands by in situ, in vitro, in vivo, and ex vivo screening methods. We will then discuss prominent examples of solid tumor targeting-peptides; namely peptide targeting tumor vasculature, tumor microenvironment (TME) and overexpressed receptors on cancer cells identified through phage display screening. We will also discuss the current challenges and future outlook for targeting peptidebased therapeutics in the clinics.     

Mouse thymus targeted peptide isolated by in vivo phage display can inhibit bioactivity of thymus output in vivo

Heterogeneity of the vasculature in different organs has been well documented by the method of in vivo phage display. Using this technology, several peptide ligands that home to tissue-specific vascular endothelial cell have been isolated. Such peptide ligands directed against specific vascular surface molecules can be used as targeted therapeutic compounds or imaging agents to the vasculature of the specific organ in vivo. In this study, the authors perform in vivo selection in mice using a phage display random peptide library and separated phage peptides homing to mouse thymus by 3 rounds of in vivo panning. Sequence analysis showed that CHAQGSAEC is the dominant peptide sequence. Immunohistochemistry confirmed that the phage peptide CHAQGSAEC can bind specifically to thymus blood vessels in mice. Furthermore, phage peptide CHAQGSAEC and free peptide CHAQGSAEC can inhibit the bioactivity of thymus output in vivo. These results indicate the feasibility of the targeted peptide for possible function as a kind of tool to inhibit thymus bioactivity or as a targeted compound for targeted medicine.     

Peptide-displaying phage technology in glycobiology

Phage display technology is an emerging drug discovery tool. Using that approach, short peptides that mimic part of a carbohydrate's conformation are selected by screening a peptide-displaying phage library with anti-carbohydrate antibodies. Chemically synthesized peptides with an identified sequence have been used as an alternative ligand to carbohydrate-binding proteins. These peptides represent research tools useful to assay the activities of glycosyltransferases and/or sulfotransferases or to inhibit the carbohydrate-dependent binding of proteins in vitro and in vivo. Peptides can also serve as immunogens to raise anti-carbohydrate antibodies in vivo in animals. Phage display has also been used in single-chain antibody technology by inserting an immunoglobulin's variable region sequence into the phage. A single-chain antibody library can then be screened with a carbohydrate antigen as the target, resulting in a recombinant anti-carbohydrate antibody with high affinity to the antigen. This review provides examples of successful applications of peptide-displaying phage technology to glycobiology. Such an approach should benefit translational research by supplying carbohydrate-mimetic peptides and carbohydrate-binding polypeptides.     

In vitro selection of a peptide with high selectivity for cardiomyocytes in vivo

One approach to targeted therapies for cardiovascular disease relies on isolating ligands that enhance the tissue-specific uptake of genes or drugs by heart cells. To obtain heart-targeting ligands, phage display biopanning was used to isolate a 20-mer peptide that binds to isolated primary cardiomyocytes. The isolated phage, PCM.1, displays the peptide WLSEAGPVVTVRALRGTGSW, and binds these cells 180 times better than a control phage from the library. Furthermore, phage displaying this peptide preferentially bind to cardiomyocytes when compared with a panel of other cell types. A BLAST search revealed that this peptide contains a 12 amino acid segment with sequence identity to a peptide in tenascin-X, an extracellular matrix protein. Synthetic peptides containing the complete 20-mer or a 12-mer tenascin peptide partially blocked phage binding to the cardiomyocytes. We developed a quantitative real-time PCR assay to assess uptake of this phage by tissues in vivo. Using this assay, preferential localization of the PCM.1 phage in heart was observed compared to the uptake of this phage by other tissues or other phage by heart. Furthermore, PCM.1 phage was associated with cardiomyocytes isolated from mice treated with a phage in vivo. These results demonstrate the utility of biopanning on isolated cells for identifying specific binding peptides that can target a tissue in vivo.     

Vascular-homing peptides for targeted drug delivery and molecular imaging: Meeting the clinical challenges

The vasculature of each organ expresses distinct molecular signatures critically influenced by the pathological status. The heterogeneous profile of the vascular beds has been successfully unveiled by the in vivo phage display, a high-throughput tool for mapping normal, diseased, and tumor vasculature. Specific challenges of this growing field are targeted therapies against cancer and cardiovascular diseases, as well as novel bioimaging diagnostic tools. Tumor vasculature-homing peptides have been extensively evaluated in several preclinical and clinical studies both as targeted-therapy and diagnosis. To date, results from several Phase I and II trials have been reported and many other trials are currently ongoing or recruiting patients. In this review, advances in the identification of novel peptide ligands and their corresponding receptors on tumor endothelium through the in vivo phage display technology are discussed. Emphasis is given to recent findings in the clinical setting of vascular-homing peptides selected by in vivo phage display for the treatment of advanced malignancies and their altered vascular beds.     

Drugs derived from phage display: From candidate identification to clinical practice

Phage display, one of today’s fundamental drug discovery technologies, allows identification of a broad range of biological drugs, including peptides, antibodies and other proteins, with the ability to tailor critical characteristics such as potency, specificity and cross-species binding. Further, unlike in vivo technologies, generating phage display-derived antibodies is not restricted by immunological tolerance. Although more than 20 phage display-derived antibody and peptides are currently in late-stage clinical trials or approved, there is little literature addressing the specific challenges and successes in the clinical development of phage-derived drugs. This review uses case studies, from candidate identification through clinical development, to illustrate the utility of phage display as a drug discovery tool, and offers a perspective for future developments of phage display technology.