Abstract
Like natural viruses, manmade protein cages for drug delivery are to be ideally formed by repetitive subunits with self-assembling properties, mimicking viral functions and molecular organization. Naturally formed nanostructures (such as viruses, flagella or simpler protein oligomers) can be engineered to acquire specific traits of interest in biomedicine, for instance through the addition of cell targeting agents for desired biodistribution and specific delivery of associated drugs. However, fully artificial constructs would be highly desirable regarding finest tuning and adaptation to precise therapeutic purposes. Although engineering of protein assembling is still in its infancy, arising principles and promising strategies of protein manipulation point out the rational construction of nanoscale protein cages as a feasible concept, reachable through conventional recombinant DNA technologies and microbial protein production.
Highlights
Like natural viruses, manmade protein cages for drug delivery are to be ideally formed by repetitive subunits with self-assembling properties, mimicking viral functions and molecular organization
The term ‘artificial viruses’ has been proposed to describe virus-like constructs exhibiting specific viral functions that are relevant to cell recognition, penetration and compartment-aimed release of cargo nucleic acids [1,2,3]
This nanoparticle-based concept, which can be extended to chemical drug delivery, involves the use of refillable cages and the incorporation of functional agents for cell receptor binding, cellular uptake and eventually endosomal escape and nuclear delivery
Summary
Toward Development of Artificial Viruses for Gene Therapy:. 2. Mastrobattista E, van der Aa MA, Hennink WE, Crommelin DJ: Artificial viruses: a nanotechnological approach to gene delivery. 6. Malam Y, Loizidou M, Seifalian AM: Liposomes and nanoparticles: nanosized vehicles for drug delivery in cancer. 7. Singh S: Nanomedicine-nanoscale drugs and delivery systems. Ruoslahti E, Bhatia SN, Sailor MJ: Targeting of drugs and nanoparticles to tumors. Aris A, Villaverde A: Modular protein engineering for non-viral gene therapy. Ferrer-Miralles N, Vazquez E, Villaverde A: Membrane-active peptides for non-viral gene therapy: making the safest easier. Vives E, Schmidt J, Pelegrin A: Cell-penetrating and cell-targeting peptides in drug delivery. Vazquez E, Ferrer-Miralles N, Mangues R, Corchero JL, Schwartz S Jr, Villaverde A: Modular protein engineering in emerging cancer therapies.
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