Effective modification of cell death-inducing intracellular peptides by means of a photo-cleavable peptide array-based screening system

Intracellular functional peptides that play a significant role inside cells have been receiving a lot of attention as regulators of cellular activity. Previously, we proposed a novel screening system for intracellular functional peptides; it combined a photo-cleavable peptide array system with cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs). Various peptides can be delivered into cells and intracellular functions of the peptides can be assayed by means of our system. The aim of the present study was to demonstrate that the proposed screening system can be used for assessing the intracellular activity of peptides. The cell death-inducing peptide (LNLISKLF) identified in a mitochondria-targeting domain (MTD) of the Noxa protein served as an original peptide sequence for screening of peptides with higher activity via modification of the peptide sequence. We obtained 4 peptides with higher activity, in which we substituted serine (S) at the fifth position with phenylalanine (F), valine (V), tryptophan (W), or tyrosine (Y). During analysis of the mechanism of action, the modified peptides induced an increase in intracellular calcium concentration, which was caused by the treatment with the original peptide. Higher capacity for cell death induction by the modified peptides may be caused by increased hydrophobicity or an increased number of aromatic residues. Thus, the present work suggests that the intracellular activity of peptides can be assessed using the proposed screening system. It could be used for identifying intracellular functional peptides with higher activity through comprehensive screening.