Description:
Anti-cancer peptide, PNC-27, is a membrane-active peptide that binds to the HDM-2 protein expressed in the cancer cell membranes of solid tissue tumor cells. The peptide induces transmembrane pore formation in cancer, but not in normal cells, resulting in tumor cell necrosis (cell death).

PNC proteins were first theorized and created in 2000 by Drs. Matthew Pincus and Joseph Michl at the SUNY Downstate Medical Center in New York. Although they were originally intended to combat HIV, PNC-27 showed a remarkable ability to bind to cancer cells, causing them to die, while leaving healthy cells undamaged.

The PNC-27 cancer peptide is a nontoxic compound that causes the death of cancer cells only, leaving all other healthy cells unaffected. It is able to do this by attaching to the membranes of the individual cancer cells, creating holes in those membranes. As a result of the holes, rapid implosion occurs, leading to swift cell death due to the osmotic pressure difference in the inside vs. outside of the tumor cells.

PNC-27 accomplishes this due to its affinity for binding to a protein called HDM-2. Cancer cells have HDM-2 in their cell membranes. When the PNC-27 peptide is administered, it immediately travels to the HDM-2 located in the membranes of cancerous cells. By binding to them, it creates pores or holes in the cell membrane, causing membranolysis,; or death of the cell membrane.