Cancer is undoubtedly one of the main threats to global human health and as a result, despite significant advances in the field, new and improved cancer treatments are still in great need. Although chemotherapy (in combination with other therapies) is widely used to suppress the growth of tumours, many of the current anti-cancer drugs suffer from poor selectivity and consequently severe toxicity. In order to conquer these limitations, targeted drug delivery systems have been designed and studied with the primary aim of improving the accuracy of transporting anti-cancer drugs into cancer cells and tissue areas. The overall aim of the work presented in this thesis is to design new anti-cancer drug delivery systems using three different strategies.
In Chapter 2, intelligent stimulus-responsive short elastin-like peptides (ELPs) and elastin-based side chain polymers (ESPs) were synthesised. The conformation and aggregation properties of these ELPs and ESPs were studied in different aqueous buffers (varying pH also) using ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy and circular dichroism (CD). Of the ELPs investigated, peptide 10 (N-acetylated VPGVG) was found to have the lowest transition temperature at pH 7 (i.e. 45oC). Amongst all the ESPs, PF100-GABA(VPGVG) (29) was proven to have the lowest transition temperature (47oC) which was most likely due to the fact that it had the highest molecular weight.
In Chapter 3, gold nanoparticles (GNPs) were synthesised and functionalised with biomolecules including elastin-like peptides (ELPs), elastin-based side chain polymers (ESPs) and the pro-apoptotic peptide D-(KLAKLAK)2 (KLA). The hybrids materials, ELP-GNPs and ESP-GNPs were characterized by UV-Vis, CD and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The hybrids showed the same temperature sensitive properties as the free ELPs and ESPs previously studied, confirming the successful functionalization of GNPs. The KLA-GNPs were found to have increased anti-cancer activity against HeLa cells compared to the free KLA.
In Chapter 4, the pro-apoptotic KLA peptide was conjugated to a series of cell penetrating peptoids (CPPos) to prepare peptoid-peptide hybrids (CPPos-KLA). The anti-cancer, antimicrobial and cell penetrating properties of these peptoid-peptide hybrids were investigated. The results demonstrated an increasing trend in anti-cancer ability of CPPos-KLA hybrids (compared to free KLA) and KLA-CPPo6 (57) gave the lowest IC50 value (ca.8 μM) against HeLa cells
