Isolation of a peptide for targeted drug delivery into human head and neck solid tumors

Lack of tumor specificity remains a major problem with chemotherapies in that side effects prevent the delivery of dosages of drugs that are required to eliminate tumors. In this report, we describe the isolation of a 12-mer peptide (HN-1), with ~1% of the mass of typical antibodies, that meets several criteria for targeted drug delivery into a solid tumor. First, internalization of HN-1 by human head and neck squamous cell cancer (HNSCC) cells suggests that HN-1 is capable of translocating drugs across cell membranes. Second, HN-1 appears to be HNSCC-specific, given its reduced uptake by nonmalignant human oral keratinocytes and other types of human cells, its preferential binding to primary HNSCC, and its localization to HNSCC-derived xenografts. Third, the presence of HN-1 within HNSCC xenografts suggests that it is capable of penetrating tumor tissues. Our results establish the utility of tumor-specific peptides for targeted drug delivery into solid tumors.