The Potential of Chlorotoxin in Drug Design
Ojeda P G, et al. Peptide Science, 2016, 106(1): 25-36.
Chlorotoxin is a disulfide-rich stable peptide, and has several properties that make it a good starting point for drug design:
· It is able to bind preferentially to tumor cells, making the design of therapeutics using chlorotoxin as a scaffold to treat glioma and other types of cancer of neuroectodermal origin such as melanoma, neuroblastoma and medullobastoma possible.
· To date, no obvious toxicities nor immunogenic responses after being administered to humans have been reported
· Chlorotoxin is reportedly able to enter the brain and be internalized by cells, suggesting that it could be used to deliver drugs to the brain and/or intracellular targets.