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

描述(申请人提供)：自体干细胞和生长因子为各种适应症提供了有价值的治疗方法。当干细胞和生长因子联合输送时，它们比单独输送干细胞或生长因子产生更大的治疗效果。然而，生长因子在临床上的使用受到在愈合部位保留蛋白质的挑战的限制。干细胞的使用具有挑战性，因为自体组织中细胞的频率很低。为了解决这些困难，AffinEnergy使用其核心技术--噬菌体展示生物扫描--筛选包含数十亿个候选多肽序列的噬菌体文库。通过这一过程，我们鉴定出与生长因子和干细胞具有高亲和力和特异性的多肽。在我们的第二阶段项目中，我们开发了一种涂有生长因子结合肽的生物材料，它捕获和保留生长因子的时间比商业上可用的生物材料要长得多。我们在动物模型中证明，当与含有靶生长因子的自体组织结合时，这种生物材料比商业上可获得的产品具有更好的治疗效果。在这一竞争性的更新应用中，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，该多肽也通过噬菌体展示进行鉴定。这两种多肽的结合将增加从自体组织到材料上的干细胞的捕获，并提供与捕获和保留生长因子的协同效应。

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.