Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 23, 2026

Synthesis of Monocyte-targeting Peptide Amphiphile Micelles for Imaging of Atherosclerosis
Published on: November 17, 2017
Synthetic peptide-labelled micelles for active targeting of cells overexpressing EGF receptors
Diego Tesauro1, Raffaella Mastro2, Antonella Cusimano3
1Department of Pharmacy and CIRPeB, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Naples, Italy. dtesauro@unina.it.
Abstract:
The goal of nanomedicine is to transport drugs to pathological tissues, reducing side effects while increasing targeting and efficacy. Aggregates grafted by bioactive molecules act as the active targeting agents. Among bioactive molecules, peptides, which are able to recognize overexpressed receptors on cancer cell membranes, appear to be very promising. The aim of this study was to formulate analog peptide-labeled micelles enabled to potentially deliver highly hydrophobic drugs to cancer cells overexpressing epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor (EGFR). The selected synthetic peptide sequences were anchored to a hydrophobic moiety, aiming to obtain amphiphilic peptide molecules. Mixed micelles were formulated with Pluronic® F127. These micelles were fully characterized by physico-chemical methods, estimating the critical micellar concentration (CMC) by fluorescence. Their sizes were established by dynamic light scattering (DLS) analysis. Then, micelles were also tested in vitro for their binding capacity to human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell lines overexpressing EGFR.
Related Concept Videos
Internal Receptors
Peptide Bonds
Types of Receptors: Cell Surface Receptors
Synthetic Biology
Golden rice
Golden rice is a genetically modified...
Receptor-mediated Endocytosis
Enzyme-linked Receptors
Neurotrophin (NT) receptors are a family of RTKs, including trkA, trkB, and trkC (tropomyosin-related kinase) receptors. TrkA is specific for nerve growth factor (NGF), neurotrophin-6, and neurotrophin-7. TrkB binds...

