"Proteinfection", a novel strategy for intracellular protein delivery.
| Componente | Categoria |
|---|---|
| Paola Baiocco | Componenti strutturati del gruppo di ricerca / Structured participants in the research project |
| Andrea Bellelli | Componenti strutturati del gruppo di ricerca / Structured participants in the research project |
| Alessandra Bonamore | Componenti strutturati del gruppo di ricerca / Structured participants in the research project |
| Alberto Macone | Componenti strutturati del gruppo di ricerca / Structured participants in the research project |
Administration of therapeutic proteins holds significant promises in the treatment of threatening diseases, including cancer. The high intracellular activity and specificity of proteins endowed with catalytic activities has the potential to exert magnified effects at very low dosage if compared to more conventional, low molecular weight drugs. However, effective delivery of proteins and peptides to specific cell targets remains a challenging issue due to the presence of multiple diverse biological barriers, from circulating blood to tissues and cells.
In the present project, the chimeric archaeal-human ferritin (HumAfFt) will be used to deliver and release cytochrome c and induce apoptosis in different tumor cell lines. HumAfFt combines the versatility in 24-meric assembly and cargo incorporation capability of Archaeglobus fulgidus ferritin with specific binding to TfR1 receptor, the ¿heavy duty¿ carrier responsible for transferrin-iron uptake.