title: Intracellular cargo delivery by virus capsid protein-based vehicles: From nano to micro.
abstract: Cellular delivery is an important concern for the efficiency of medicines and sensors for disease diagnoses and therapy. However, this task is quite challenging. Self-assembly virus capsid proteins might be developed as building blocks for multifunctional cellular delivery vehicles. In this work, we found that SV40 VP1 (Simian virus 40 major capsid protein) could function as a new cell-penetrating protein. The VP1 protein could carry foreign proteins into cells in a pentameric structure. A double color structure, with red QDs (Quantum dots) encapsulated by viral capsids fused with EGFP, was created for imaging cargo delivery and release from viral capsids. The viral capsids encapsulating QDs were further used for cellular delivery of micron-sized iron oxide particles (MPIOs). MPIOs were efficiently delivered into live cells and controlled by a magnetic field. Therefore, our study built virus-based cellular delivery systems for different sizes of cargos: protein molecules, nanoparticles, and micron-sized particles.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Much research is being done to investigate methods for efficient and specific cellular delivery of drugs, proteins or genetic material. In this article, the authors describe their approach in using self-assembly virus capsid proteins SV40 VP1 (Simian virus 40 major capsid protein). The cell-penetrating behavior provided excellent cellular delivery and should give a new method for biomedical applications.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China; Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Ding
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China; Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Xiu-Ping
authors.initials: XP
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Zhi-Ping
authors.initials: ZP
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Dong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Men
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China; National Key Laboratory of Macrobiomolecules, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Xian-En
authors.initials: XE
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China. Electronic address: czq@wh.iov.cn.
authors.forename: Zong-Qiang
authors.initials: ZQ
authors.lastname: Cui
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D036022:Capsid Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D002522:Chlorocebus aethiops; D003692:Delayed-Action Preparations / Q000378:metabolism*; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems / Q000379:methods; D005290:Ferric Compounds / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000032:analysis; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000032:analysis; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000032:analysis; D060526:Magnetic Fields; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D061848:Optical Imaging; D010316:Particle Size; D045663:Quantum Dots / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000032:analysis; D013539:Simian virus 40 / Q000378:metabolism*; D014709:Vero Cells
chemical_list: D036022:Capsid Proteins; D003692:Delayed-Action Preparations; D005290:Ferric Compounds; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; C062481:VP1 protein, polyomavirus; C485184:enhanced green fluorescent protein; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins; C000499:ferric oxide
keywords: Cellular delivery; MPIOs; Protein transduction; SV40 VP1; Self-assembly