RGD peptide derivatives as tools for tumour imaging and therapy

The first project is a tumour imaging method based on iodinated micelle which can be applied as contrast agent for CT. the obtained micelle solution was tested by x-ray instrument and shows acceptable contrast ability in comparison with commercial samples. The second project is to develop a novel tumour therapy aimed at blocking angiogenesis process which has been proved to be crucial for growth of tumour cells. RGD as common cell recognition topic is employed in the project to synthesize fluorinated tetra-peptide abridged by fluorinated GABA amino aicds. Fluorinated amino acid is synthesized according to previous literature, efforts have also been made to optimise reaction conditions. A rationale is proposed for vital second fluorination reactions during condition optimization. We observed a cyclization efficiency difference owing to conformational variation of fluorinated amino acids. Fluorinated cyclic RGD peptides is synthesized and after deprotection peptides will be tested on angiogenesis assay and integrin adhesion assay in collaboration with GSK England and CCIA in Sydne