Generation of a multi-functional, target organ-specific, anti-fibrotic molecule by molecular engineering of the extracellular matrix protein, decorin.

ABSTRACT: Extracellular matrix (ECM) molecules play important roles in regulating processes such as cell proliferation, migration, differentiation and survival. Decorin is a proteoglycan that binds to ('decorates') collagen fibrils in the ECM. Decorin also interacts with many growth factors and their receptors, the most notable of these interactions being its inhibitory activity on TGF-β, the growth factor responsible for fibrosis formation. We have generated a recombinant, multi-functional, fusion-protein consisting of decorin as a therapeutic domain and a vascular homing and cell-penetrating peptide as a targeting vehicle. This recombinant decorin (CAR-DCN) accumulates at the sites of the targeted disease at higher levels and, as a result, has substantially enhanced biological activity over native

SUBMITTER: Jarvinen TAH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6284330 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature