The transferrin receptor part II: Targeted delivery of therapeutic agents into cancer cells

PLGA-Based Nanoparticles as Cancer Drug Delivery Systems

“…The transferrin receptor is a crucial protein involved in iron homeostasis and the regulation of cell growth. The high levels of expression of transferring receptor in cancer cells, which may be up to 100-fold higher than the regular expression of normal cells, its extracellular DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.7314/APJCP.2014.15.2.517 PLGA-Based Nanoparticles as Cancer Drug Delivery Systems accessibility, its ability to internalize and its central role in the cellular pathology of human cancer, make this receptor an attractive target for cancer therapy (Cho et al, 2008;Danhier et al, 2010;Daniels et al, 2006). ii) The folate receptor is a famous tumor marker that binds to the vitamin folic acid and folate-drug conjugates or folate grafted nanocarriers with a high affinity and carries these bound molecules into the cells through receptormediated endocytosis.…”

An improved flow cytometric assay for detection and discrimination between malignant cells and atypical mesothelial cells, in serous cavity effusions

“…The transferrin receptor (CD71) is a cell membrane-associated glycoprotein involved in iron homeostasis and cell growth. It has been explored as a target for delivering therapeutic agents into cancer cells, due to its increased expression on malignant cells, accessibility on the cell surface, and constitutive endocytosis (12)(13)(14). CD71 was also used here as it is always expressed in normal mesothelial cells, contributing to further identification and immunophenotyping with the basic panel (15).…”

“…CD71 was used as a marker to localize a suspicious CD45 negative cell population, which could be of malignant or other origin. Although it is not a common tumor marker, it is upregulated in proliferating cells (such as tumor cells) (12)(13)(14). It is also expressed by normal mesothelial cells (15), so it could operate as a linkage marker for their differential diagnosis.…”

Noncanonical interactions between serum transferrin and transferrin receptor evaluated with electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

“…Since hTf is one of relatively few proteins that can be internalized by rapidly growing cells, it is an attractive candidate for various therapeutic strategies aiming at specific delivery of imaging and cytotoxic agents to neoplastic cells (4). It is therefore not surprising that the TfR-mediated uptake pathway has been a focus of extensive research in recent years.…”