Phage Display technology for the identification of peptides targeting hyperaldosteronism

Phage display is an advanced molecular technique widely used for the identification of peptides or antibodies with affinity and specificity toward biological targets. This method is based on the presentation of individual peptides or antibodies, each derived from a randomly generated combinatorial library, on the surface of filamentous bacteriophages. Among these, M13 is the most extensively exploited and well-characterized phage. The selection of high-affinity binders is achieved through iterative "biopanning" cycles. This thesis aims to exploit the potential of M13 based phage display for the discovery of peptides applicable in the context of aldosterone related hypertension. Two distinct biopannings were performed. In the first one, the target was the aldosterone producing HAC15 human adrenocortical carcinoma cell line. In the second one, the target was the human angiotensin II converter ACE2 protein, whose reaction products (angiotensin 1-9 and 1-7) are involved in blood pressure modulation. Selected peptides will undergo further characterization to evaluate their binding affinity and specificity. Ultimate goal is to combine the phage display derived peptides with the Avidin-Nucleic-Acid NanoAssembly (ANANAS) platform to develop novel precision nanotherapeutic strategies to treat hypertension related diseases.