Precision medicine requires targeted packaging and delivery of therapies to specific tissues and cells. Engineered virus-like particles (VLPs) are a promising avenue for next-generation targeted therapies because they are biocompatible and improve drug-packaging, delivery and cell targeting. VLPs self-assemble from the viral structural proteins, mimicking the organization and conformation of native viruses without regulatory proteins and genetic material. Moreover, the outer surface of the VLPs is symmetrical and can serve as programmable scaffolds for further modifications, such as attaching multiple specific copies of a target and thus increasing its concentration on a given cell type. Due to their composition, VLPs can enable efficient protective immunity as direct immunogens compared to soluble antigens co-administered with adjuvants in multiple booster injections.
To date, most applications use VLPs as gene therapy, vaccination, nanotechnology, and diagnostics. Here, the focus is on performing a selection of the most up-to-date studies involving the modification of VLPs by making them target-specific delivery systems. The challenges of developing VLPs for specific antigen and drug delivery, strategies being explored to address these challenges, and the genetic and chemical approaches available for VLP engineering will be discussed within this research topic.
Precision medicine requires targeted packaging and delivery of therapies to specific tissues and cells. Engineered virus-like particles (VLPs) are a promising avenue for next-generation targeted therapies because they are biocompatible and improve drug-packaging, delivery and cell targeting. VLPs self-assemble from the viral structural proteins, mimicking the organization and conformation of native viruses without regulatory proteins and genetic material. Moreover, the outer surface of the VLPs is symmetrical and can serve as programmable scaffolds for further modifications, such as attaching multiple specific copies of a target and thus increasing its concentration on a given cell type. Due to their composition, VLPs can enable efficient protective immunity as direct immunogens compared to soluble antigens co-administered with adjuvants in multiple booster injections.
To date, most applications use VLPs as gene therapy, vaccination, nanotechnology, and diagnostics. Here, the focus is on performing a selection of the most up-to-date studies involving the modification of VLPs by making them target-specific delivery systems. The challenges of developing VLPs for specific antigen and drug delivery, strategies being explored to address these challenges, and the genetic and chemical approaches available for VLP engineering will be discussed within this research topic.