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Development of poly(lactide-co-glycolide) nanoparticles functionalized with a mitochondria penetrating peptide.

Francesca SelminGiulia MagriChiara G M GennariSilvia MarchianòNicola FerriSara Pellegrino
Published in: Journal of peptide science : an official publication of the European Peptide Society (2017)
The development of mitochondria-targeting cell permeable vectors represents a promising therapeutic approach for several diseases, such as cancer and oxidative pathologies. Nevertheless, access to mitochondria can be difficult. A new hybrid material composed by poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) functionalized with a 6-mer mitochondria penetrating peptide (MPP), consisting in alternating arginine and unnatural cyclohexylalanine, was developed. Circular dichroism, FT-IR and DSC studies indicated that the conjugation of the peptide with the polymer led to the obtainment of a more rigid material with respect to both PLGA and MPP as such. In particular, a conformational rearrangement to a helical structure was observed for MPP. MPP-PLGA conjugates were used for the preparation of nanoparticles that showed no cytotoxicity in MTT assay, suggesting their putative use for future studies on mitochondria targeting. Copyright © 2017 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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