Controlled release strategy of paclitaxel by conjugating to matrix metalloproteinases-2 sensitive peptide

Peptide drug conjugates offer a novel strategy to achieve controlled drug release. This approach avoids the clinical obstacles of non-specific toxicity and overall drug resistance of conventional cytotoxic agents, such as paclitaxel. MMP2 plays important functions in tumour proliferation and metastasis. Herein, we conjugated the paclitaxel with a hexapeptide which is specific recognized by MMP2 protein. The conjugate is dissociated upon the MMP2 specific proteolysis at COOH terminal of hexapeptide, PVGLIG. The results clearly indicated that the PVGLIG-paclitaxel conjugate significantly enhanced the tumor specificity against HT-1080 and U87-MG tumour cells. Our finding suggested that the hexapeptide PVGLIG is capable to act as a controlled and sustained drug carrier of paclitaxel for the treatment against tumour proliferation and metastasis with high MMP2 expression.