Biophysical Society Thematic Meeting - October 25-30, 2015

Polymers and Self Assembly: From Biology to Nanomaterials Poster Session II

5-POS Board 5 Nano-encapsulated Assemblies Derived from a Non-enveloped Virus Capsid Protein for Targeted Delivery Saumya Bajaj , Manidipa Banerjee. Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi, India. Viruses exemplify uniform self-assembly - multiple copies of single (or few) coat proteins assemble spontaneously in a precisely regulated manner into highly regular and symmetrical capsid shells. The viral genome is protected within these nano-sized containers. Viruses are stable enough to protect the genomic content, and yet pliable enough to release this payload into host cells. This makes viruses fine candidates for development of biomaterials for drug delivery; the engineering of viral capsid proteins and encapsulation of functional cargo in them is one of the subjects of current research in nanobiotechnology. The aim of this work is to explore the capsid protein of a non-enveloped insect nodavirus, Flock House Virus (FHV), as a building block for nano-encapsulated structures for targeted delivery to cancer cells. FHV is a structurally simple virus, being made up of 180 copies of a single capsid protein alpha that presumably contains all the information needed for higher-order assembly. We have expressed alpha in a heterologous (bacterial) expression system and shown its calcium-templated assembly into morphologically diverse particles, the structures of which we are analyzing through electron microscopy and single-particle reconstruction. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report utilizing E. coli to produce FHV particles. Considering that insect cell-produced FHV VLPs have been shown to be carriers of transposable elements, an expression system where in vitro self-assembly is encouraged will be of considerable benefit for its biomedical applications. We have genetically engineered tumor-homing peptide Lyp-1 into a surface exposed loop of alpha, thus generating in vitro assembled, nano-encapsulated particles with tumor-binding capability. We are using these viral nanoparticles for targeting cancer cells. Thus, we have developed a candidate functional biomaterial for targeted drug delivery.

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