Part:BBa_K5302009

VEGFR-masking#29

This linear 13-mer peptide is derived from the N-terminal amino acids of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) and forms a helix structure. It exhibits high affinity for VEGFR-like receptors, with an IC50 value of 0.05 μM, allowing it to effectively compete with VEGF for binding to VEGFR. Consequently, this peptide has been utilized as a masking agent. Upon administration into the human body, it preemptively binds to VEGFR, preventing VEGF from engaging with the receptor. Given that matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are present at high concentrations in the tumor microenvironment (TME), they can degrade this VEGFR-masking peptide (designated as #29). This degradation allows VEGF to subsequently bind to the VEGFR-like receptors, triggering their activation. Therefore, this peptide functions as a biological switch, becoming active when exposed to the TME upon the entry of engineered chimeric nanoparticles ( Escherichia coli Nissle 1917).

Figure 1. Dose–response curve for compound 29

Figure 2. VEGFR-mask-#29, from α-fold

Figure 3. The binding site of D2 and the mask can be identified as being identical to the binding site of D2 with VEGF, indicating that they can compete for binding. The linker employed consists of five repeats of the GGGGS sequence, from α-fold

Figure 4. The linker has been reduced to three repeats of the GGGGS sequence, from α-fold

Figure 5. The linker has been modified by replacing the middle GGGGS sequence with a matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) recognition sequence, while maintaining the binding site unchanged, from α-fold

Figure 6. Colony PCR results of pBBR-OmpA-VEGFR1D2-l1masking#29

Figure 7. Colony PCR results of pBBR-OmpA-VEGFR1D2-l2masking#29, pBBR-INP-VEGFR1D2-l1masking#29 and pBBR-INP-VEGFR1D2-l2masking#29

Sequence and Features

Assembly Compatibility:

• 10
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[10]
• 12
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[12]
• 21
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[21]
• 23
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[23]
• 25
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[25]
• 1000
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[1000]