Cell Penetrating Peptides (CPPs) work like Swiss Army knife
In a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, a team of UCLA Bioengineering researchers led by Gerard Wongshowed how cell penetrating peptides (such as the HIV TAT peptide)can deliver cargo across cell membranes by multiplexing interactions with the membrane, the actin cytoskeleton, and specific cell-surface receptors. Moreover, because they now know how cell penetrating peptides work, it is now possible to have a general recipe for reprograming normal peptides into cell penetrating peptides. Other team members in this multidisciplinary collaboration include Profs Tim Deming and Dan Kamei from UCLA Bioengineering, and Prof. JJ Cheng from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The lead authors of this work are Abhijit Mishra (now an Assistant Professor in IIT Ghandinagar in India) and Ghee Hwee Lai. More details can be found in the UCLA press release below.