Screening and identification of a renal carcinoma specific peptide from a phage display peptide library

Background: specific peptide ligands to cell surface receptors have been extensively used in tumor research and clinical applications. phage display technology is a powerful tool for the isolation of cell-specific peptide ligands. to screen and identify novel markers for renal cell carcinoma,we evaluated a peptide that had been identified by phage display technology. methods. a renal carcinoma cell line a498 and a normal renal cell line hk-2 were used to carry out subtractive screening in vitro with a phage display peptide library. after three rounds of panning,there was an obvious enrichment for the phages specifically binding to the a498 cells,and the output/input ratio of phages increased about 100 fold. a group of peptides capable of binding specifically to the renal carcinoma cells were obtained,and the affinity of these peptides to the targeting cells and tissues was studied. results: through a cell-based elisa,immunocytochemical staining,immunohistochemical staining,and immunofluorescence,the phage zt-2 and synthetic peptide zt-2 were shown to specifically bind to the tumor cell surfaces of a498 and incision specimens,but not to normal renal tissue samples. conclusion: a peptide zt-2,which binds specifically to the renal carcinoma cell line a498 was selected from phage display peptide libraries. therefore,it provides a potential tool for early diagnosis of renal carcinoma or targeted drug delivery in chemotherapy. © 2011 tu et al; licensee biomed central ltd.