Virus-Based Nanocarriers for Targeted Drug Delivery
Devarajan Thangadurai, Saher Islam, Charles Oluwaseun Adetunji in Viral and Antiviral Nanomaterials, 2022
Viruses are tiny particles composed of nucleic acid (DNA, RNA). They are self-assembling to prepare a hollow scaffold-depended packing of the viral nucleic acid. The viral protein outer shell (i.e. the so-called capsid) is considered a nano-template because of its dimensions. Most viruses are limited to a special kind of host. Plant viruses infect some plants. Plant viruses have not caused any side effects for humans. They do not offer a biological hazard (Wellink 1998). Viral capsids are highly robust and stable. The genomic materials are encapsulated in the capsid to replicate within a host. Protecting genetic material is the primary task of the capsid, and it does keep viruses stable under situations such as harsh pH and temperature (Pokorski and Steinmetz 2011; Liu et al. 2012). Recently, viruses have been displayed to be genetically adaptable for chemical reactions as reagents, catalysts, and scaffolds applications (Strable and Finn 2009). Virus-based nanocarriers present the important properties of biocompatibility, uniformity, morphological, and simple functionalization. Additionally, virus-based nanoparticles are found in a diversity of characteristic shapes and sizes (Ma et al. 2012). Viral particles are stable in harsh conditions, such as high temperatures, a broad range of pH, and organic solvent water mixtures. These particles are natural structures, symmetrical, and attractive (Steinmetz and Evans 2007; Ma et al. 2012; Alemzadeh et al. 2018).
Introduction to virus structure, classification, replication, and hosts
Avindra Nath, Joseph R. Berger in Clinical Neurovirology, 2020
As indicated earlier, there currently are more than 3600 known virus species. Viruses have been detected within every other type of living organism, from bacteria to plants and animals [20]. Some families of viruses are capable of infecting organisms from diverse kingdoms. For example, Rhabdoviridae are capable of infecting plants and animals. However, any given species of virus is usually extremely limited in the types of host cells it can infect. This is known as cell tropism. Thus, a particular virus capable of infecting some bacteria usually cannot infect all bacteria and also cannot infect any plants or animals. Most plant viruses are capable of infecting some, but not all, species of plants but cannot infect any bacteria or animals. Likewise, the cell tropism of a specific animal virus limits the capacity of the virus to infect only certain species of animals.
Edible Vaccine
Hafiz Ansar Rasul Suleria, Megh R. Goyal, Masood Sadiq Butt in Phytochemicals from Medicinal Plants, 2019
Edible vaccines (EVs) are milestones in medical biotechnology to provide protection against variety of diseases. They provide exciting possibilities for reducing the load of diseases especially in developing country, where storage and administration of vaccines are the major issues. These vaccines suppress many diseases like diarrhea, type-1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, autoimmune disorders, etc. The genes encoding bacterial and viral pathogenic antigens can be expressed in plants in a form in which they possess native immunogenic properties. Since it is a noninvasive method of immunization, therefore, the chances of infection are also decreased. There is always a risk associated with vaccine production from mammalian cell culture, which can get contaminated with animal viruses. While in case of EVs, it is not possible because plant viruses do not infect humans. Thus, they are harmless and safety is guaranteed. The oral administration of EVs provides “mucosal immunity” at various sites by secreting antibodies. The production is highly efficient, easily scaled up, and reduces cost of transportation and refrigeration.
Neuroprotective ability of TMV coat protein on rat PC-12 cells and it’s in silico study with LRRK2 receptor
Published in Neurological Research, 2018
Yash Sharma, Nidhi Srivastava, Kumud Bala
Plant made biologics such as viruses, facilitate the stockpiling of vaccines against pandemic infectious disease to the applications of proteins in the field of personalized medicine [10]. Tobacco mosaic virus is one of the most appropriate most well characterized plant virus, that has been studied for vector development. Its genome section has the ability to subclone in to an assortment of plasmid vector [11]. TMV is also used in the production of vaccine against pandemic influenza viruses [12]. Earlier studies have shown the maximum appearance of Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) in youngest leaves of tobacco. The most appropriate host range of TMV belongs to Solanaceae family [13]. These TMV invade the tissues of plants excluding roots and shoots, by avoiding the transfer of infection [14]. TMV particles involve phosphorus, carbohydrate, 5% RNA and 95% protein [15,16]. TMV has also shown its importance in biotechnology field by using TMV particle as a surface carrier of foreign peptides to use as vaccine for the production of antibodies against unrelated agents [17]. Recent development has shown the advantage of utilizing viral coat protein as antigen directly to antigen presenting cells due to its size [18,19].
Metagenomic analysis of intestinal mucosa revealed a specific eukaryotic gut virome signature in early-diagnosed inflammatory bowel disease
Published in Gut Microbes, 2019
Federica Ungaro, Luca Massimino, Federica Furfaro, Valeria Rimoldi, Laurent Peyrin-Biroulet, Silvia D’Alessio, Silvio Danese
Conversely, other viral families, such as Polydnaviridae and Tymoviridae in UC, and Virgaviridae in CD, that we observed to be less enriched in IBD patients and to negatively correlate with the presence of other viruses, might be somehow considered protective in the human host.15 This is interesting, because Polydnaviridae, Tymoviridae, and Virgaviridae are viruses that typically infects plants and insects and may have reached the gut through the diet.3 The trans-kingdom interaction15 between viruses and hosts, such as plant and insect viruses that colonize human tissues, has already been reported in the past for Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV), against which antibodies were found in human sera.42 Unlike animal viruses, plant viruses cannot replicate in humans or other animals because of the lack of specific receptors. Nevertheless, they still can induce the host immune response, as shown for the cowpea mosaic virus in mice.43,44
Merits of the ‘good’ viruses: the potential of virus-based therapeutics
Published in Expert Opinion on Biological Therapy, 2021
Qianyu Zhang, Wen Wu, Jinqiang Zhang, Xuefeng Xia
Viruses are known to be able to evolve, infect, and replicate in their respective hosts along their revolutionary paths. Viruses border on the fine line between living organisms and merely chemistry sets, which completely rely on host cells’ machinery to replicate and produce more copies of themselves. Although long have been overshadowed by their pathogenicity, they can be also viewed as a reservoir of biological therapeutics due to their diversity and functions. In fact, viruses have been applied as useful tools in many occasions such as molecular mechanism studies. For example, ever since its discovery in 1898, Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV) has been used as a teaching tool in biology classes with its structure extensively studied and understood. Recently, there have been researches using it as a drug delivery platform as plant viruses are unable to infect the mammalian host and show considerable compatibility in mammals [95–97]. Besides that, adenoviral, lentiviral, and retroviral vectors have been used widely for transduction both in cell culture and in vivo to study gene and protein function. Of course, most of these studies were completed in laboratory; therefore, the real challenge in transforming these biological tools into safe and efficacious drugs still remains.
Related Knowledge Centers
- Animal Virus
- Cell Wall
- Genome
- Tobacco Mosaic Virus
- Viral Envelope
- Virus
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- Pathogen
- Intracellular Parasite
- Host