The thiol-Michael addition is a popular, selective, high-yield “click” reaction utilized for applications ranging from small-molecule synthesis to polymer or surface modification. Here, we combined experimental and quantum mechanical modeling...
While
synthetic nanoparticles play a very important role in modern
medicine, concerns regarding toxicity, sustainability, stability,
and dispersity are drawing increasing attention to naturally derived
alternatives. Rod-shaped plant viruses and virus-like particles (VLPs)
are biological nanoparticles with powerful advantages such as biocompatibility,
tunable size and aspect ratio, monodispersity, and multivalency. These
properties facilitate controlled biodistribution and tissue targeting
for powerful applications in medicine. Ongoing research efforts focus
on functionalizing or otherwise engineering these structures for a
myriad of applications, including vaccines, imaging, and drug delivery.
These include chemical and biological strategies for conjugation to
small molecule chemical dyes, drugs, metals, polymers, peptides, proteins,
carbohydrates, and nucleic acids. Many strategies are available and
vary greatly in efficiency, modularity, selectivity, and simplicity.
This review provides a comprehensive summary of VLP functionalization
approaches while highlighting biomedically relevant examples. Limitations
of current strategies and opportunities for further advancement will
also be discussed.
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