Analytical Method Development and Validation for the Anticancer Peptide, Lyp-1

Lyp-1 is a nine amino acid cyclic peptide, which has specificity of tumor cells especially on breast cancer cells1-4. LyP-1 is not only a special marker for the tumor endothelial cells but also specific to the tumor lymphatic endothelia to which vascular peptides (F3, CREKA peptide, RGD peptides) are not specific5. It has been shown that following iv administration of LyP-1, the peptide accumulates heavily at the tumor and metastatic regions2,3. In addition to localization and internalization in the tumor and endothelial cells, LyP-1 also induces apoptosis (programmed cell death) in the cells that it has been internalized. This renders LyP-1 invaluable among the other tumor-specific peptides. It has been demonstrated that following administration of LyP-1 to tumor-grown mice, this peptide inhibits tumor growth6. The fact that LyP-1 plays a crucial role in lymphatic targeting in cancer therapy brings out the possibility of the use of this peptide as itself or by conjugation to another anticancer drug for targeted cancer therapy. Zhang et al. have described peptides spesific to tumor lymphatics7. They have shown that there were site spesific differences on blood and lymph vessels during tumor growth. Lyp-1 is one of Hacettepe University Journal of the Faculty of Pharmacy Volume 31 / Number 2 / July 2011 / pp. 97-108