Nanocontainers for nanocargo: Delivering genes and proteins for cellular imaging, genetic medicine and cancer therapy
By loading any specific protein and nucleic acid into an icosahedral phage T4 capsid-based nanoparticle, the resulting cell delivery vehicle's ligands can bind to the surface of specific target tissues to deliver the protein/DNA cargo. (Icosahedral viral nanoparticles are evolutionary protein shells assembled in a hierarchical order that results in a stable protein layer and an inner space for accommodating nucleic acids and proteins; a capsid is the protein shell of a virus.) The technique has drug- and gene-delivery applications in human diseases, diagnostic and cellular imaging, and other medical areas. Recently, scientists at US Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC and University of Maryland at Baltimore packaged T4 nanoparticles in vivo with active cyclic recombination, or Cre, recombinase (a genetic recombination enzyme used to manipulate genome structure and control gene expression) and in vitro with fluorescent mCherry (a fluorescent protein used as a marker when tagged to molecules and cell...