Engineering Peptide Modulators for T-Cell Migration by Structural Scaffold Matching

Lymphocyte migration plays a crucial role in the progression of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, and the inhibition of autoreactive immune cells is an attractive therapeutic strategy. Pepitem is an endogenous modulator of lymphocyte migration. In this study, we implemented a structural scaffold matching approach to engineer of stabilized pepitem-based probes. Prioritizing the native helix-loop-helix structure of pepitem, protein structure databases were mined to identify the structurally closest peptide scaffold. Leveraging this strategy, we developed VhTI-pep 2, inhibiting CD3⁺ T-lymphocyte migration in vitro with a comparable potency (EC₅₀ = 10.6 ± 16.5 nM) to pepitem (EC₅₀ = 6.0 ± 6.4 nM). Its potency was further extended to T-cell subsets derived from multiple sclerosis patients and highly disease-driving memory and Th1 cell populations. Our approach will guide the design of stabilized peptide probes and future therapeutics, overcoming the challenges associated with flexible and linear peptides.