In Silico design and verification of a chimer protein to target exosomes towards HER2 positive cancer cells

Abstract

Nanoparticle drug delivery systems has been attempted as novel cancer treatment approaches to overcome the limitation faced in chemotherapy and surgery. Exosomes are naturally occurring nanoparticles. Exosome targeting to HER2 positive cancer cells is dependent on ligand receptor interactions. Expression of targeting moieties in chimer with LAMP-2, which is an exosomal protein, on the surface of the exosome is a rational way to target exosomes against HER2 positive cancer cells. In the present study we devised an in silico approach to design and validate the interaction of a chimer protein of LAMP-2 and G3 DARPins with HER2 molecule. Our results indicated that the designed protein is capable of interacting with HER2 in a Herseptin like orientation. The LAMP-2/G3 DARPins chimer designed here could be a novel candidate to target exosomes towards desired HER2 positive cancer cells. The designed exosomes could be loaded with desired drugs and targeted towards the cancer cells. Given the promising results of the conducted study more empirical studies could be carried out to further evaluation of the obtained results.