Solid-phase synthesis of peptide-dendrimer conjugates for an investigation of integrin binding

Abstract

Peptide-dendrimer conjugates, bearing up to eight peptide ligands (LDV) targeted against the 4 integrin VLA-4 were prepared by solid-phase synthesis. Solid phase synthesis allowing the dendrimer conjugates to be prepared in high purity for an investigation of the multivalent effect in ligand integrin interactions. An ELISA was used to screen the peptide-dendrimer conjugates for their ability to compete with a biotinylated peptide component of the CS1 region of fibronectin. The inhibition potential of the different generation peptide-dendrimer conjugates was found to increase with higher generations.