Introduction: Noninvasive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and targeted drug delivery systems, usually referred to as theranostic agents, are being developed to enable detection, site-specific treatment, and long-term monitoring.   Materials and Methods: To elucidate the effects of coating on cellular uptake and biodistribution of n...

Lentiviral expression vectors carrying human NRP-1 short hairpin RNA (shRNA) were constructed and selected to present highly efficient NRP-1/shRNA interference sequences, in order to investigate the effects of RNA interference (RNAi)-mediated NRP-1 silencing on the biological activities of breast cancer cells. Three pairs of human NRP-1 targeted specific interference sequences and one pair of n...

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is characterized by an intense fibrotic reaction termed tumor desmoplasia, which is in part responsible for its aggressiveness. Endothelial cells have been shown to display cellular plasticity in the form of endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndMT) that serves as an important source of fibroblasts in pathological disorders, including cancer. Angiogen...

Background: Recently, modification of T cells with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) has been an attractive approach for adoptive immunotherapy of cancers. Typically, CARs contain a single-chain variable domain fragment (scFv). Most often, scfvs are derived from a monoclonal antibody of murine origin and may be a trigger for host immune system that leads to the T-cell clearance. Nanobody is a spe...

A major contributor to cancer mortality is recurrence and subsequent metastatic transformation following therapeutic intervention. Therefore, in order to develop new treatment modalities and improve the efficacy of current ones, it is important to understand themolecularmechanisms that promote resistance to therapy in cancer cells. One pathway contributing to therapy resistance is autophagy, a ...

Recent investigations highlighted strong similarities between neural crest migration during embryogenesis and metastatic processes. Indeed, some families of axon guidance molecules were also reported to participate in cancer invasion: plexins/semaphorins/neuropilins, ephrins/Eph receptors, netrin/DCC/UNC5. Neuropilins (NRPs) are transmembrane non tyrosine-kinase glycoproteins first identified a...

CD38, as a cell surface antigen is highly expressed in several hematologic malignancies including multiple myeloma (MM) and has been proven to be a good target for immunotherapy of the disease. CD38 is also a signaling enzyme responsible for the metabolism of two novel calcium messenger molecules. To be able to target this multifunctional protein, we generated a series of nanobodies against CD3...

Mitochondria are vital organelles to eukaryotic cells. Damage to mitochondria will cause irreversible cell death or apoptosis. In this report, we aim at programmed cancer cell death via specific mitochondrial damage. Herein, a functionalized pro-apoptotic peptide demonstrates a dual-targeting capability using folic acid (FA) (targeting agent I) and triphenylphosphonium (TPP) cation (targeting a...

Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and its receptor c-Met are associated with increased aggressiveness of tumors and poor prognostic outcome of patients with cancer. Here, we report the development and characterization of therapeutic anti-HGF (αHGF)-Nanobodies and their potential for positron emission tomographic (PET) imaging to assess HGF expression in vivo. Two αHGF-Nanobodies designated 1E2 and...

Monoclonal antibodies have revolutionized cancer therapy. However, delivery to tumor cells in vivo is hampered by the large size (150 kDa) of conventional antibodies. The minimal target recognition module of a conventional antibody is composed of two non-covalently associated variable domains (VH and VL). The proper orientation of these domains is mediated by their hydrophobic interface and is ...