title: Virus-based nanocarriers for drug delivery.
abstract: New nanocarrier platforms based on natural biological building blocks offer great promises in revolutionalizing medicine. The usage of specific protein cage structures: virus-like particles (VLPs) for drug packaging and targetted delivery is summarized here. Versatile chemical and genetic modifications on the outer surfaces and inner cavities of VLPs facilitate the preparation of new materials that could meet the biocompatibility, solubility and high uptake efficiency requirements for drug delivery. A full evaluation on the toxicity, bio-distribution and immunology of these materials are envisaged to boost their application potentials.
authors.affiliation: Group of Biomolecular Nanotechnology, MESA(+) Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Yujie
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Roeland J M
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Nolte
authors.forename: Jeroen J L M
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Cornelissen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004337:Drug Carriers / Q000737:chemistry*; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems / Q000379:methods*; D004349:Drug Packaging / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D014780:Viruses / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D004337:Drug Carriers