ARF peptide

ARF peptide refers to synthetic peptides derived from key functional regions of the tumor suppressor protein p14ARF (human) or p19ARF (mouse), engineered to mimic the protein's biological activity. The most studied ARF peptides typically correspond to highly conserved domains, notably amino acids 2–14 or 26–44. These peptides may be fused to cell-penetrating domains such as poly-D-arginine sequences to enhance cellular uptake. Mechanistically, ARF peptides can suppress tumor growth by antagonizing several oncogenic targets: (1) antagonizing MDM2 to restore p53 tumor suppressor activity, (2) inhibiting the transcriptional activity of FoxM1, and (3) binding nucleophosmin (NPM) to suppress ribosome biogenesis and induce apoptosis. In preclinical animal models and cell culture, ARF peptides have shown antitumor activity including limiting proliferation and inducing apoptosis of cancer cells, with high selectivity for tumor tissue. Various peptide formulations have shown efficacy against liver, ovarian, lung, and other cancers by these mechanisms[1][2][3][5][7][9][11][13]. Some ARF peptides are mitochondrially targeted for additional regulation of mitochondrial function[3][13].

Other names

cell-penetrating ARF peptideARF-derived peptideARF minimal domain peptideARF inhibitory peptide