Tat-LK15, a Tat-fusion peptide, to deliver therapeutic siRNA in Chronic Myeloid Leukemic cells

Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia (CML) is a hematopoietic malignant disease characterized by the presence of the Philadelphia chromosome (Ph) (reciprocal translocation of chromosomes 22 and 9) and the formation of the BCR-ABL fusion oncoprotein, which exhibits deregulated tyrosine kinase activity. This fusion protein can be targeted using RNAi. Using viral vectors [1] and electroporation [2] has its own disadvantages. To counteract this, we resort to Cell Penetrating Peptides (CPPs). Tat has fused to membrane active peptide LK15 to form Tat-LK15 [3], that been shown to deliver DNA efficiently into cells. The efficiency was comparable to Lipofectin and PEI.