Peptide conjugation for Co-Delivery of Growth Factors and Stem Cells

描述（由申请人提供）：自体干细胞和生长因子为各种适应症提供有价值的治疗方法。当干细胞和生长因子共同递送时，它们比单独递送干细胞或生长因子产生更大的治疗效果。然而，生长因子在临床中的使用受到了在愈合部位保留蛋白质的挑战的限制。由于自体组织中细胞的频率较低，干细胞的使用具有挑战性。为了解决这些困难，Affinergy使用其核心技术噬菌体展示生物筛选，筛选包含数十亿候选肽序列的噬菌体文库。从这个过程中，我们发现了与生长因子和干细胞具有高亲和力和特异性结合的肽。在我们的二期项目中，我们开发了一种包裹有生长因子结合肽的生物材料，这种生物材料捕获和保留生长因子的时间比市售生物材料长得多。我们在动物模型中证明，当与含有目标生长因子的自体组织结合时，这种生物材料比市售产品具有更大的治疗效果。在这个竞争性更新申请中，我们建议通过添加干细胞结合肽来进一步增强该产品的功效，这也是通过噬菌体展示鉴定的。这两种多肽的结合将增加干细胞从自体组织捕获到材料上，并提供生长因子捕获和保留的协同效应。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Autologous stem cells and growth factors provide valuable therapies for a variety of indications. When stem cells and growth factors are co-delivered, they produce a greater therapeutic effect than delivery of either stem cells or growth factors alone. However, the use of growth factors in the clinic is limited by the challenges of retaining the proteins at the site of healing. The use of stem cells is challenging because of the low frequency of cells in autologous tissue. To address these difficulties, Affinergy used its core technology, phage display biopanning, to screen phage libraries containing billions of candidate peptide sequences. From this process, we identified peptides that bind with high affinity and specificity to growth factors and stem cells. In our Phase II project, we developed a biomaterial coated with a growth factor-binding peptide that captures and retains growth factors significantly longer than the commercially available biomaterials. We demonstrated in animal models that this biomaterial has greater therapeutic efficacy than commercially available products when combined with autologous tissue containing the target growth factor. In this Competing Renewal application, we propose to further enhance the efficacy of this product through the addition of a stem cell-binding peptide, also identified by phage display. The combination of the two peptides will increase the capture of stem cells from autologous tissue onto the material and provide a synergistic effect with the capture and retention of growth factors.