Experimental Study of Antitumor Activity of Pefagtal Addressed to αvβ3 Integrins.

We studied the effect of a new targeted drug Pefagtal that represents a conjugate in which the MS2 phage filled with a substance toxic to cells (thallium salts) is covalently linked to peptides containing the RGD motif. The antitumor and pronounced antimetastatic effects of Pefagtal were demonstrated on transplanted mouse tumors differing in histological type and status of metastasis: Krebs-2 ascites adenocarcinoma of the mammary gland, Lewis lung adenocarcinoma, hepatoma-29, and lung adenocarcinoma. It is assumed that the RGD motif mediates primary binding of the construct to αvβ3 and αvβ5 integrins that are predominantly overexpressed in the endothelial cells of tumor blood vessels and in tumor and metastatic cells.

DNA melting and energetics of the double helix.

Studying melting and energetics of the DNA double helix has been one of the major topics of molecular biophysics over the past six decades. The main objective of this article is to overview the current state of the field and to emphasize that there are still serious gaps in our understanding of the issue. We start with a concise description of the commonly accepted theoretical model of the DNA melting.