Exploitation of plant and archaeal viruses in bionanotechnology

Abstract

CPMV (cowpea mosaic virus), a plant virus, is a naturally occurring sphere-like nanoparticle, and is used as a synthon and/or template in bionanoscience. The virions formed by CPMV can be regarded as programmable nanobuilding blocks with a diameter of approximately 30 nm. A range of molecules have been attached to this viral nanoscaffold, yielding stable nanoparticles that display multiple copies of the desired molecule. It has been shown that, in addition to surface amine groups, surface carboxy groups are also addressable, and a procedure has been developed that enables introduction of reactive thiols at the virion surface that avoids virus aggregation. Furthermore, the virions can be functionalized to form electroactive nanoparticles. Methods for the construction of arrays and multilayers, using a layer-by-layer approach, have been established. As proof of concept, for example, CPMV particles have been immobilized on surfaces and arranged in defined layers. Engineered variants of CPMV can be used as templates for mineralization with, for example, silica to give monodisperse robust silica nanoparticles of approximately 32 nm. SIRV2 (Sulfolobus islandicus rod-shaped virus 2), is a robust archaeal virus, resistant to high temperature and low pH. SIRV2 can act as a template for site-selective and spatially controlled chemical modification. Both the ends and the body of the virus, or the ends only, can be chemically addressed; SIRV2 can be regarded as a structurally unique nanobuilding block.

Manipulation of cellular syntheses and the nature of viruses: The virocell concept

“…Now, viruses are at the centre of discussions between evolutionists concerning their nature, their origin and their position in the tree of life [7,20,36,40,72,73]. Finally, they are also more and more involved in the design of new therapies (such as gene therapy) [74] or in the renewal of old ones (phage therapy) [75] and they have recently started to make their way in nanotechnology [76]. An aspect that has been neglected until now seems to be the more deliberate exploitation of their power as synthetic biologists.…”

RNA-controlled assembly of tobacco mosaic virus-derived complex structures: from nanoboomerangs to tetrapods

“…[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] It contains one positive-sense single-stranded RNA of ∼6395 nucleotides carrying the genetic information, 14 embedded within a protein coat of ∼2130 identical, helically arranged monomers. This rigid rod-like nucleoprotein structure -the virion -of about 300 × 18 nm encloses a longitudinal channel 4 nm in diameter.…”

SMV1, an extremely stable thermophilic virus platform for nanoparticle trafficking in the mammalian GI tract

“…To our knowledge, an archaeal virus has never been evaluated in vivo , but the potential for their use as nano‐vector platforms has been proposed (Steinmetz et al . ; Evans ; Uldahl and Peng ) and recently, an in vitro study investigating SMV1 and its interaction with mammalian cells provided promising results (Uldahl et al . ).…”

“…As with plant viruses and bacteriophages, SMV1 should not be pathogenic to humans or animals. To our knowledge, an archaeal virus has never been evaluated in vivo, but the potential for their use as nano-vector platforms has been proposed (Steinmetz et al 2008;Evans 2009;Uldahl and Peng 2013) and recently, an in vitro study investigating SMV1 and its interaction with mammalian cells provided promising results (Uldahl et al 2016b). In this study, SMV1 was shown to be efficiently internalized by both human endothelial cells of brain and umbelical vein origin without any detrimental effect on cell morphology, plasma membrane and mitochondrial functionality (Uldahl, Wu, Hall, Papathanasiou, Peng, and Moghimi 2016b), thus indicating SMV1 as a promising therapeutic nano-vector.…”