Technologies

Invention
The invention comprises the composition of HYD1 peptides which are peptides of a specific sequence composed of D amino acids that bind beta integrin and prevent cancer cells from attaching to the extracellular matrix. These peptides are useful as cancer therapeutics on their own. Also, these peptides can be combined with other therapies and be useful as a cancer diagnostic.

Background
Many tumors that initially respond to chemotherapy treatments later recur, often with multi-drug resistant phenotype, due to the treatment’s failure to eliminate minimal residual disease. These tumor cells’ survival can be accounted for in part by de novo drug resistance. This mechanism by definition does not require selection by any particular drug and is instead more concerned with the tumor microenvironment. Specifically the inventors have shown that de novo drug resistance in leukemia cells is associated with attachment to the extracellular matrix protein fibronectin through beta integrin.