Targeting human cancer cells with VEGF receptor-2-directed liposomes.

Antibodies are among the most versatile tools used today to characterize and target molecules in cells and in biological tissues. The development of phage display libraries encoding a large repertoire of single chain antibodies, scFv, allows the rapid and efficient isolation of antibodies specific for almost any type of molecule. A great advantage of such recombinant antibodies is the possibility to functionalize them by introducing new amino acid sequences.

Antennapedia and HIV transactivator of transcription (TAT) "protein transduction domains" promote endocytosis of high molecular weight cargo upon binding to cell surface glycosaminoglycans.

Protein transduction domains (PTDs) are short basic peptide sequences present in many cellular and viral proteins that mediate translocation across cellular membranes. PTDs have become widely used as tools for the delivery of high Mr polypeptides, polynucleotides, or nanoparticles to cells in culture; and even the transfer of cargo molecules to the tissue of live animals has been reported. These cell-permeable peptides are functional when fused in-frame to recombinant polypeptides or when chemically coupled to their cargo.