Screening of a specific peptide binding to esophageal squamous carcinoma cells from phage displayed peptide library.

To select a specifically binding peptide for imaging detection of human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), a phage-displayed 12-mer peptide library was used to screen the peptide that bind to ESCC cells specifically. After four rounds of bio-panning, the phage recovery rate gradually increased, and specific phage clones were effectively enriched. The 60 randomly selected phage clones were tested using cellular enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and 41 phage clones were identified as positive clones with the over 2.10 ratio of absorbance higher than other clones, IRP and PBS controls. From the sequencing results of the positive clones, 14 peptide sequences were obtained and ESCP9 consensus sequence was identified as the peptide with best affinity to ESCC cells via competitive inhibition, fluorescence microscopy, and flow cytometry. The results indicate that the peptide ESCP9 can bind to ESCC cells specifically and sensitively, and it is a potential candidate to be developed as an useful molecule to the imaging detection and targeting therapy for ESCC.