title: Bacteriophages and phage-inspired nanocarriers for targeted delivery of therapeutic cargos.
abstract: The main goal of drug delivery systems is to target therapeutic cargoes to desired cells and to ensure their efficient uptake. Recently a number of studies have focused on designing bio-inspired nanocarriers, such as bacteriophages, and synthetic carriers based on the bacteriophage structure. Bacteriophages are viruses that specifically recognize their bacterial hosts. They can replicate only inside their host cell and can act as natural gene carriers. Each type of phage has a particular shape, a different capacity for loading cargo, a specific production time, and their own mechanisms of supramolecular assembly, that have enabled them to act as tunable carriers. New phage-based technologies have led to the construction of different peptide libraries, and recognition abilities provided by novel targeting ligands. Phage hybridization with non-organic compounds introduces new properties to phages and could be a suitable strategy for construction of bio-inorganic carriers. In this review we try to cover the major phage species that have been used in drug and gene delivery systems, and the biological application of phages as novel targeting ligands and targeted therapeutics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Nanotechnology, Faculty of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mahdi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Karimi
authors.affiliation: Advanced Nanobiotechnology & Nanomedicine Research Group [ANNRG], Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Hamed
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mirshekari
authors.affiliation: Drug Design and Bioinformatics Unit, Medical Biotechnology Department, Biotechnology Research Center, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran; Civil & Environmental Engineering Department, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Seyed Masoud
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Moosavi Basri
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Nanotechnology, Faculty of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; Student Research Committee, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR, Iran.
authors.forename: Sajad
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bahrami
authors.affiliation: Student Research Committee, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR, Iran; Department of Virology, Faculty of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohsen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Moghoofei
authors.affiliation: Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Department of Dermatology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. Electronic address: Hamblin@helix.mgh.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: Michael R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Hamblin
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001435:Bacteriophages / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems / Q000379:methods*; D018014:Gene Transfer Techniques; D006801:Humans; D008024:Ligands; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000008:administration & dosage*
chemical_list: D008024:Ligands; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations
keywords: Bacteriophage; Bioinspired drug delivery; Display; Nanocarriers; Phage; Targeting; Virus-like particles