Biological and evolutionary concepts for nanoscale engineering

Steinmetz, Nicole F.

doi:10.15252/embr.201948806

Cited by 11 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 11 publications

(12 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…There is no "perfect solution", thus there is a need to fuel the development pipeline with novel drug delivery systems. An emerging class of novel drug carriers are protein-based nanoparticles such as protein cages and viruses [5]. Protein cages are self-assembled supramolecular structures arranged from their individual protein monomers.…”

Section: Viral Nanocarrier Platformsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Viral nanoparticles for drug delivery, imaging, immunotherapy, and theranostic applications

Chung

Cai

Steinmetz

2020

Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews

281

241

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Viral nanoparticles (VNPs) encompass a diverse array of naturally occurring nanomaterials derived from plant viruses, bacteriophages, and mammalian viruses. The application and development of VNPs and their genomefree versions, the virus-like particles (VLPs), for nanomedicine is a rapidly growing. VLPs can encapsulate a wide range of active ingredients as well as be genetically or chemically conjugated to targeting ligands to achieve tissue specificity. VLPs are manufactured through scalable fermentation or molecular farming, and the materials are biocompatible and biodegradable. These properties have led to a wide range of applications, including cancer therapies, immunotherapies, vaccines, antimicrobial therapies, cardiovascular therapies, gene therapies, as well as imaging and theranostics. The use of VLPs as drug delivery agents is evolving, and sufficient research must continuously be undertaken to translate these therapies to the clinic. This review highlights some of the novel research efforts currently underway in the VNP drug delivery field in achieving this greater goal.

show abstract

Section: Viral Nanocarrier Platformsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Viral nanoparticles for drug delivery, imaging, immunotherapy, and theranostic applications

Chung

Cai

Steinmetz

2020

Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews

281

241

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…VNPs are natural nanoscale structures in size (10-500 nm) obtained from various viruses, consisting of a genome and a proteinaceous coat self-assembled from coat proteins (Steinmetz, 2019). Among VNPs, PVNPs have found a novel role as NPs to deliver biomedical materials such as drugs and potentially genes.…”

Section: Plant Virus Nanoparticlesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multifunctional plant virus nanoparticles: An emerging strategy for therapy of cancer

Azizi

Shahgolzari

Karkan

et al. 2022

WIREs Nanomed Nanobiotechnol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Cancer therapy requires sophisticated treatment strategies to obtain the highest success. Nanotechnology is enabling, revolutionizing, and multidisciplinary concepts to improve conventional cancer treatment modalities. Nanomaterials have a central role in this scenario, explaining why various nanomaterials are currently being developed for cancer therapy. Viral nanoparticles (VNPs) have shown promising performance in cancer therapy due to their unique features. VNPs possess morphological homogeneity, ease of functionalization, biocompatibility, biodegradability, water solubility, and high absorption efficiency that are beneficial for cancer therapy applications. In the current review paper, we highlight state‐of‐the‐art properties and potentials of plant viruses, strategies for multifunctional plant VNPs formulations, potential applications and challenges in VNPs‐based cancer therapy, and finally practical solutions to bring potential cancer therapy one step closer to real applications.This article is categorized under: Therapeutic Approaches and Drug Discovery > Nanomedicine for Oncologic Disease Nanotechnology Approaches to Biology > Nanoscale Systems in Biology Biology‐Inspired Nanomaterials > Protein and Virus‐Based Structures

show abstract

“…Their self-assembly from a small number of subunits into symmetrical, monodispersed architectures has inspired scientists from diverse disciplines [ 10 , 11 ]. In the last two decades, protein nanocages have developed as extremely useful materials for a variety of applications including vaccine development, mostly because of their remarkable diversity in size, shape, structural biocompatibility, and immunogenicity [ 11 , 12 , 13 ]. In general, protein cages can be viewed as macromolecular containers with a wide range of cargo encapsulation and displaying abilities [ 14 , 15 , 16 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multivalent Display of SARS-CoV-2 Spike (RBD Domain) of COVID-19 to Nanomaterial, Protein Ferritin Nanocages

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

SARS-CoV-2, or COVID-19, has a devastating effect on our society, both in terms of quality of life and death rates; hence, there is an urgent need for developing safe and effective therapeutics against SARS-CoV-2. The most promising strategy to fight against this deadly virus is to develop an effective vaccine. Internalization of SARS-CoV-2 into the human host cell mainly occurs through the binding of the coronavirus spike protein (a trimeric surface glycoprotein) to the human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor. The spike-ACE2 protein–protein interaction is mediated through the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the spike protein. Mutations in the spike RBD can significantly alter interactions with the ACE2 host receptor. Due to its important role in virus transmission, the spike RBD is considered to be one of the key molecular targets for vaccine development. In this study, a spike RBD-based subunit vaccine was designed by utilizing a ferritin protein nanocage as a scaffold. Several fusion protein constructs were designed in silico by connecting the spike RBD via a synthetic linker (different sizes) to different ferritin subunits (H-ferritin and L-ferritin). The stability and the dynamics of the engineered nanocage constructs were tested by extensive molecular dynamics simulation (MDS). Based on our MDS analysis, a five amino acid-based short linker (S-Linker) was the most effective for displaying the spike RBD over the surface of ferritin. The behavior of the spike RBD binding regions from the designed chimeric nanocages with the ACE2 receptor was highlighted. These data propose an effective multivalent synthetic nanocage, which might form the basis for new vaccine therapeutics designed against viruses such as SARS-CoV-2.

show abstract

Biological and evolutionary concepts for nanoscale engineering

Abstract: Biological materials are a rich resource for nanoscale engineering. Their structure is easily accessible via their DNA and they were optimised through evolution to fulfill their function.

Cited by 11 publications

References 11 publications

Viral nanoparticles for drug delivery, imaging, immunotherapy, and theranostic applications

Viral nanoparticles for drug delivery, imaging, immunotherapy, and theranostic applications

Multifunctional plant virus nanoparticles: An emerging strategy for therapy of cancer

Multivalent Display of SARS-CoV-2 Spike (RBD Domain) of COVID-19 to Nanomaterial, Protein Ferritin Nanocages

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About