SBIR-STTR Award

The long term goal of this project is the development of synthetic peptide-based therapy for Human B-cell lymphomas. The phase I period will serve (1) to test the feasibility of identifying peptide ligands of the surface immunoglobulin antigen receptors (IgR) from patients' tumors; and (2) to test the in vivo efficacy of synthetic peptide ligands in the SUP- B8 SCID mouse model system. The specific tasks to be accomplished are to 1) isolate the soluble IgR from culture supernatant of hybridomas previously established from patient lymphoma biopsies; 2) screen a variety of random peptide libraries against each immunoglobulin preparation to find specific peptide ligands. (The libraries contain peptides 8 to 20 residues in length expressed on the pIII and pVIII coat proteins of filamentous phage, or fused to Laci complexed with plasmids, or displayed as nascent peptides in polysomes.); 3) synthesize, purify, and confirm the sequence of the peptide ligands; 4) characterize the specificities, affinities, and biological activities of these peptides; 5) test the efficacy of the synthetic peptides in SCID mouse model by treating mice bearing the human tumor with a series of peptide administration protocols.National Cancer Institute (NCI)