Title:Artificial Virus as Trump-card to Resolve Exigencies in Targeted Gene Delivery
Volume: 18
Issue: 3
Author(s): K.C. Ajithkumar and Kannissery Pramod*
Affiliation:
- College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Govt. Medical College, Kozhikode - 673008, Kerala,India
Keywords:
Artificial virus, bacterial inclusion bodies, gene carrier, nanoparticles, non-viral gene therapy, plasmid DNA, virus
like particles.
Abstract: Viruses are potent pathogens that can effectively deliver the genetic material to susceptible
host cells. This capability is beneficially utilized to successfully deliver the genetic material. However,
the use of virus mediated gene delivery is considered divisive, because the potentially replicable genomes
recombine or integrate with the cell DNA resulting in immunogenicity, ranging from inflammation
to death. Thus, the need for potentially effective non-viral gene delivery vehicles arises. Non-viral
vectors, protein only particles and virus like particles (VLP) can be constructed which contain all the
necessary functional moieties. These resemble viruses and are called artificial or synthetic virus. The
artificial virus eliminates the disadvantages of viral vectors but retain the beneficial effects of the viruses.
Need for further functionalization can be avoided by this approach because incorporation of requisite
agents such as cell ligands, membrane active peptides, etc. into proteins is possible. The protein-
DNA complexes resemble bacterial inclusion bodies. Nucleic acids influence conformation of protein
units which subsequently result in cell uptake and finally to the cell nucleus. Such tunable systems
mimic the activities of infected viruses and are used for the safe and effective delivery of drugs and
genetic material in gene therapy. The versatility, stability and biocompatible nature of artificial virus
along with high transfection efficacy have made it favorite for gene delivery purposes, in addition to
being useful for various biomedical and drug delivery applications.
