Table 2.
Summary of Receptor-Ligand Pairs Used for Cancer Cell Targeting
| Receptor | Cells Over-Expressing the Receptor | Ligand |
|---|---|---|
| Transferrin receptor (TfR) | Breast, glioma, bladder, lung, prostate cancer; chronic lymphocytic leukemia, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma153 | Transferrin (Tf) |
| Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) | Breast, colorectal, brain, ovarian, pancreatic, and prostate cancer154 | Small molecules: epidermal growth factor (EGF), transforming growth factor-α (TGF-α), epigen, betacellulin, and epiregulin155 Monoclonal antibodies: Anti-EGFR mAb, anti-HER2 mAb102 |
| Folate receptor (FR) | Ovarian, lung, brain, and colorectal cancer156 | Folic acid (FA) |
| Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) | Prostate carcinomas, neovasculature of majority of the solid tumors12 | Anti-PSMA mAb, A10 PSMA aptamer157,158 |
| Urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR) | Pancreatic cancer and tumor stromal cells67 | Recombinant amino-terminal fragment (ATF) peptide159 |
| Vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR) | Tumor neovascular endothelial cells160 | Human recombinant VEGF isoform VEGF121; Anti-VEGFR-2 mAb160,161 |
| αvβ3 integrin receptor | Tumor neovascular endothelial cells162 | Arginine–Glycine–Aspartic acid (RGD) anchored peptides163 |