This technology is a drug delivery method that utilizes short TAT (trans-activating transcription factor) oligomers to deliver drug cargo across cell membranes.
Selectively targeting cancerous cells to minimize side effects remains a critical challenge in the development of effective cancer therapies. The blood-brain barrier poses an additional challenge to delivering drugs into central nervous system tissues. One promising approach that has recently been explored is the use of positively charged cell-penetrating peptides to target negatively charged cell surfaces, which is a characteristic feature of many cancer cells.
This technology demonstrates the use of short, positively charged TAT oligomers for more effective drug delivery targeted to negatively charged cancer cells. TAT peptides utilize cationic charge to penetrate across cell membranes, and readily cross the blood-brain barrier. TAT dimers demonstrate robust tumor-selective uptake at half the concentration of conventional TAT monomers.
This technology has been validated in a rat tumor model and in several brain tumor and metastatic cancer cell lines.
Patent Pending
IR CU17314
Licensing Contact: Sara Gusik