[Screening of short peptides that bind specifically to osteosarcoma cells by phage-displayed peptide library].

OBJECTIVE: To obtain short peptides which bind specifically to osteosarcoma cells os-732 by means of screening from 12 peptide libraries.

METHODS: Osteosarcoma cells os-732 were used as the target cells and osteoblasts as the absorber cells for subtraction biopanning from a 12-mer peptide phage-display library. After 3 rounds of screening, the positive phage clones were identified by cell enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and immunohistochemistry, and the amino acid sequences were deduced by DNA sequencing.

RESULTS: Nine positive phage clones screened out of 20 clones showed specific binding with osteosarcoma os-732, but no conserved motif was found in these peptides.

CONCLUSION: The specific peptides screened from the phage library may be used as potential candidates as ligands for tumor-targeting therapy. The results also suggested that there are different epitopes on the surface of tumor cells.