Abstract
Since 1980, when the idea of drug-delivery was proposed, various drug-carriers have been developed, including DNA, proteins, liposomes and several other polymer cages, consisting of many well established natural and synthetic nano-particles. All these drug-carriers can self-assemble in the body and can be manipulated for safer delivery into target tissues. By definition, nano-scale drug delivery systems encompass any structure (either cage or particle) in the form of solid colloids, which range in size from 10 nm to 100 nm. Today, optimization of these nano drug-vehicles is a topic in many research centers. Researchers are trying to improve the carrier’s solubility and their loading capacity and also wish to increase the half-life of drug delivery cargos in target tissues. Efforts in recent years have led to the introduction of novel protein nano-cages composed of multiple protein subunits, which self-assemble within a superfine and precise format. Science their introduction these promising structure have shown many unique characteristics, including low toxicity, bio-system compatibility, minor immunogenicity, high solubility, and a relatively easy production in large scale. Herein, we review and discuss the recently developed protein nano-carriers that are used as drug cargos for targeted delivery and/or diagnostic tools.
Highlights
Drug delivery, which refers to the technologies and approaches used for safely delivering medications into their site of action and enhancing their therapeutic effects, has gained increasing attention over the past decades
We introduce some of the most relevant virus like nano-particles (VLNPs) used as nano-drug carriers
By truncating the N-terminus of the capsid’s subunits, the number of the subunits, present in the resulting particles, will be changed, along with the order of symmetry and shape, rather than icosahedral structures[26]. In addition to these characteristics features, Cowpea mosaic virus (CPMV) particles have shown good stability against harsh chemical modifications, and a wide range of temperature alteration, solvent and pH fluctuations, which are all vital for drug delivery systems
Summary
Drug delivery, which refers to the technologies and approaches used for safely delivering medications into their site of action and enhancing their therapeutic effects, has gained increasing attention over the past decades. By truncating the N-terminus of the capsid’s subunits, the number of the subunits, present in the resulting particles, will be changed, along with the order of symmetry and shape, rather than icosahedral structures[26] In addition to these characteristics features, CPMV particles have shown good stability against harsh chemical modifications (e.g., when conjugated with PEG), and a wide range of temperature alteration, solvent and pH fluctuations, which are all vital for drug delivery systems. Like other protein nano-particles, many studies have been conducted to make use of the Qβ bacteriophage as an efficient drug vehicle The onset of these efforts goes back to the Strable et al (2008) who successfully incorporated unnatural amino acids into the Qβ VLPs and made some notable structural changes from the natural coat, and investigated the stability and properties of the new structure[34]. The possibility for manipulation of the structure for a desired purpose can be provided by the researcher[50,51,52]
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