A novel and biocompatible nanofiber of VEGF peptide for enhanced corneal neovascularization suppression

Abstract Corneal neovascularization (CoNV) secondary to vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) can occur in a variety of corneal pathologies. Inhibition of VEGF or its receptor is a promising strategy to treat CoNV. The HRH peptide sequence, screened by phage display library, has a good affinity with VEGFR and inhibits abnormal vascular development. However, a high dose of peptides is usually required to obtain an ideally therapeutic effect, due to the instability and low bioactivity of peptides. In this study, we conjugated a bioactive epitope of HRH peptide to NapFF peptide to produce amphiphilic peptides which could self-assemble into nanofibers. This nanofibrous structure efficiently improved the bioactivity of the HRH peptide by prolonging the degraded time and increasing multivalency of the surface of the material. The excellent anti-angiogenic activity of NapFFHRH at lower concentrations was demonstrated both in vitro and in vivo alkali burn CoNV model. In addition, repeated subconjunctival injection of NapFFHRH did not induce acute irritative reactions or have any detrimental effect on the retina. NapFFHRH with its anti-angiogenic potency and biocompatibility could become a promising strategy for CoNV.