April 6, 2017
Keio University
Professor Nobuhide Doi and his research group at the Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University, have discovered that a partial peptide (fusion peptide; FP) of syncytin-1, a protein involved in cell fusion during human placental formation, improves the efficiency of cytoplasmic delivery of proteins by conventional cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) by several tens of times. Pharmaceuticals composed of proteins such as antibodies or even smaller peptides are attracting attention as the ultimate molecularly targeted drugs, but they have the disadvantage of low cell membrane permeability. The human-derived FP discovered in this study is expected to deliver these biopharmaceuticals into the cytoplasm more efficiently than conventional methods. It also has the advantage of being the first human-derived FP to be identified, with fewer concerns about immunogenicity. The results of this research were published in the online edition of the international academic journal "Journal of Controlled Release" on April 4, 2017.
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