生物医学研究所（IRB巴塞罗那）的科学家已经成功进行了运用黄蜂毒液杀死肿瘤细胞的体外试验。下一步将用小鼠检验其疗效。

尽管目前有多种抗癌化合物，但都有严重的副作用。此外，肿瘤能够产生耐药性，限制药物治疗。为了克服这两个缺点，生物医学研究所（IRB巴塞罗那）的科学家基于黄蜂毒液中的多肽（几种氨基酸结合体）抗乳腺癌的潜在用途而设计了一种新疗法。

“这种肽有细胞膜上形成孔洞的能力，渗透入细胞，最后导致其死亡，通过坏死或触发细胞凋亡-程序化细胞死亡的方式，” IRB Barcelona作者Miguel Moreno解释说。

然而，由于其高毒性和缺乏细胞特异性，这个强大的天然武器不能直接使用；它不仅会损害肿瘤细胞，也可能会影响病人的健康细胞。因此，研究人员设计了一个运送肽到肿瘤的方式，并使其以特定受控方式在肿瘤中积累。

该系统为一个装饰载体聚合物，包括两部分：一个绑定到肿瘤细胞受体的肽和黄蜂毒液的毒性肽。

体外实验表明，该物质在肿瘤细胞内均匀分布并导致其死亡，而健康细胞如红细胞等不受影响。

虽然已发表在《Journal of Controlled Release》中的结果似乎有前景，但仍处于初期阶段。下一步是在小鼠体内测试其有效性。作者非常乐观地认为，研究将取得成功，这种抗肿瘤系统将来可用于已经存在疗法的补充治疗。（编译：中国科学院成都生物研究所 王芋华，王海燕）

Delivering wasp venom for cancer therapy

Abstract  Cytolytic peptides with potential therapeutic properties have appeared during the last three decades. However, the use of these natural weapons is relatively narrow due to their non-specific cytolytic activity as well as their rapid degradation and excretion when injected in blood. In order to rescue the use of these lytic peptides, we have designed pro-cytotoxic systems based on cytotoxic peptides conjugated to poly(l-glutamic acid) PGA polymer through specific cleavage sequences that are sensitive over-expressed tumor proteases, such as the metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) or cathepsin B. The potent cytotoxic peptide tested here, Mitoparan, is inactive when conjugated to the polymer and then become active again once released through the tumor proteases. Furthermore, this pro-cytotoxic system was decorated by a particular targeting peptide which binds to HER2 receptors over-expressed in some types of breast tumor cells, thereby increasing the selective release of cytolytic peptides inside tumor cell with exquisite spatiotemporal control. In this way, the system would improve the maximum tolerated dose and the pharmacokinetic parameters of cytotoxic peptides in vivo.

原文链接：http://ac.els-cdn.com/S0168365914001394/1-s2.0-S0168365914001394-main.pdf?

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