Cytoplasmic Transduction Peptide (CTP)
Although it is a CRO that focuses on providing research services to its clients, Creative Biolabs continues to track the latest research advances and actively transforms them into proven, practical platforms for vaccine development. Cytoplasmic transduction is such a new technology that can be used for biomolecular delivery.
Cytoplasmic Transduction Peptide (CTP)
There have been many reports on the protein transduction domain (PTD) of HIV-1 TAT with potential for transmembrane transduction and its ability to efficiently deliver biomolecules. However, one of the problems is that PTD and PTD-conjugated molecules tend to move to the nucleus rather than the cytoplasm after transduction due to the presence of a functional nuclear localization sequence (NLS) on the PTD. NLS binds to importin-α, which is involved in the transport of proteins from the cytoplasm to the nucleus. As a functional NLS, PTD may face the need to avoid damage to nuclear genetic materials when applied to mediate transduction. Therefore, there is a need to design a transduction peptide that is capable of staying in the cytoplasm after transduction. Such peptide is cytoplasmic transduction peptide or CTP.
Studies have shown that the C-terminal region of NLS has an extended coil-structure that can bind to the cleft of importin-α, and similar structures are also found in PTD. Therefore, on the basis of PTD, some adjustments were made to the amino acid sequence, so that the conformation of the extended coil-structure was changed, and the ability to bind to importin-α was lost under the premise of ensuring membrane transduction function. This is the principle that CTP is superior to PTD when delivering drugs.
Fig.1 Schematic Representing cytoplasmic transduction peptide (CTP)-Based Technologies.
Advantages of CTP-conjugated Drug
- Cytoplasmic localization ability
- Enhanced membrane transduction
- Independence of the lipid raft-dependent macropinocytosis pathway
- Ability to target cytoplasmic functional molecules
- Liver and lymph nodes tropisms
- No impact on nuclear genetic material
- Able to penetrate various types of cells
Creative Biolabs has more than a decade of experience in vaccine development and has launched a series of platforms based on various technologies for vaccine delivery. The Cytoplasmic transduction peptide is based on the transmembrane transduction capacity of the protein transduction domain (PTD) of HIV-1 TAT and is capable of efficiently delivering drugs into cytoplasm after transduction. If your drug needs to target intracellular targets, you can consider using this method for drug delivery.
All of our products can only be used for research purposes. These vaccine ingredients CANNOT be used directly on humans or animals.
