Minimalistic Peptide Nanocarriers for Multiple Cancer Drugs

The co-assembly of minimalistic peptides with cancer drugs, leading to the formation of nanocarriers for drug delivery, comprises a promising direction in chemotherapeutics. We computationally designed fluorescent minimalistic four-residue peptide nanocarriers for multiple cancer drugs: Epirubicin, Doxorubicin, Methotrexate, Mitomycin-C, 5-Fluorouracil, Camptothecin, and Cyclophosphamide. The optimally designed resulting nanocarriers formed by FFWH have notable drug encapsulation properties for the drugs investigated, according to both computational and experimental studies. Additionally, the nanocarriers possess biocompatibility, enhanced fluorescence, and uptake into HeLa cells using live cell confocal microscopic images. Our simulations demonstrate how the same peptide can efficiently be used to encapsulate these drugs as well as provide structural and biophysical understanding of their properties. We suggest that the designed nanocarriers can serve as programmable nanostructures for the future design of new generations of advanced nanocarriers with potential cancer- and patient-specific targeting properties.