Tyrosine kinase with immunoglobulin and epidermal growth factor homology domain-2 (Tie2) has been considered as a rational target for gene therapy in solid tumors. In order to identify a novel peptide ligand of Tie2 for targeted gene therapy, we screened a phage display peptide library and identified a candidate peptide ligand NSLSNASEFRAPY(designated GA5).Binding assays and Scatchard analysis revealed that GA5 could specifically bind to Tie2 with a dissociation constant of 2.1×10-8M.In addition,we showed that GA5 was intealized into tumor cells highly expressing Tie2.In the biodistribution assay.125I-GA5 was mainly accumniated in SPC-A1 xenograft tumors that express Tie2.Ingene delivery studies,GA5-conjugated polyethylenimine vector could achieve greater transgene transduction than non-targeted vectors both in vitro and in vivo.Tumor growth inhibition was observed in SPC-A1 xenograft-bearing mice that received eight intratumoral injections of GA5 polyethylenimine/p53 complexes in 3 weeks.The difference in tumor volume between the experiment and control groups was significant(P<0.05).Our results showed that GA5 is a potentially efficient targeting element for cancer gene or molecular therapy.