@article{HoyerSchatzschneiderSchulzSiegmundetal.2012,
  author    = {Hoyer, Jan and Schatzschneider, Ulrich and Schulz-Siegmund, Michaela and Neundorf, Ines},
  title     = {Dimerization of a cell-penetrating peptide leads to enhanced cellular uptake and drug delivery},
  series = {Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry},
  volume    = {8},
  journal   = {Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry},
  doi       = {10.3762/bjoc.8.204},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-133933},
  pages     = {1788-1797},
  year      = {2012},
  abstract  = {Over the past 20 years, cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) have gained tremendous interest due to their ability to deliver a variety of therapeutically active molecules that would otherwise be unable to cross the cellular membrane due to their size or hydrophilicity. Recently, we reported on the identification of a novel CPP, sC18, which is derived from the C-terminus of the 18 kDa cationic antimicrobial protein. Furthermore, we demonstrated successful application of sC18 for the delivery of functionalized cyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl (cymantrene) complexes to tumor cell lines, inducing high cellular toxicity. In order to increase the potential of the organometallic complexes to kill tumor cells, we were looking for a way to enhance cellular uptake. Therefore, we designed a branched dimeric variant of sC18, (sC18)\(_2\), which was shown to have a dramatically improved capacity to internalize into various cell lines, even primary cells, using flow cytometry and fluorescence microscopy. Cell viability assays indicated increased cytotoxicity of the dimer presumably caused by membrane leakage; however, this effect turned out to be dependent on the specific cell type. Finally, we could show that conjugation of a functionalized cymantrene with (sC18)\(_2\) leads to significant reduction of its IC\(_{50}\) value in tumor cells compared to the respective sC18 conjugate, proving that dimerization is a useful method to increase the drug-delivery potential of a cell-penetrating peptide.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{PagottoSimeoneBroccoetal.2023,
  author    = {Pagotto, Sara and Simeone, Pasquale and Brocco, Davide and Catitti, Giulia and De Bellis, Domenico and Vespa, Simone and Di Pietro, Natalia and Marinelli, Lisa and Di Stefano, Antonio and Veschi, Serena and De Lellis, Laura and Verginelli, Fabio and Kaitsas, Francesco and Iezzi, Manuela and Pandolfi, Assunta and Visone, Rosa and Tinari, Nicola and Caruana, Ignazio and Di Ianni, Mauro and Cama, Alessandro and Lanuti, Paola and Florio, Rosalba},
  title     = {CAR-T-derived extracellular vesicles: a promising development of CAR-T anti-tumor therapy},
  series = {Cancers},
  volume    = {15},
  journal   = {Cancers},
  number    = {4},
  issn      = {2072-6694},
  doi       = {10.3390/cancers15041052},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-304195},
  year      = {2023},
  abstract  = {Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are a heterogenous population of plasma membrane-surrounded particles that are released in the extracellular milieu by almost all types of living cells. EVs are key players in intercellular crosstalk, both locally and systemically, given that they deliver their cargoes (consisting of proteins, lipids, mRNAs, miRNAs, and DNA fragments) to target cells, crossing biological barriers. Those mechanisms further trigger a wide range of biological responses. Interestingly, EV phenotypes and cargoes and, therefore, their functions, stem from their specific parental cells. For these reasons, EVs have been proposed as promising candidates for EV-based, cell-free therapies. One of the new frontiers of cell-based immunotherapy for the fight against refractory neoplastic diseases is represented by genetically engineered chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) lymphocytes, which in recent years have demonstrated their effectiveness by reaching commercialization and clinical application for some neoplastic diseases. CAR-T-derived EVs represent a recent promising development of CAR-T immunotherapy approaches. This crosscutting innovative strategy is designed to exploit the advantages of genetically engineered cell-based immunotherapy together with those of cell-free EVs, which in principle might be safer and more efficient in crossing biological and tumor-associated barriers. In this review, we underlined the potential of CAR-T-derived EVs as therapeutic agents in tumors.},
  language  = {en}
}