Self-assembly of virus like particles and their biomedical applications

ORAL

Abstract

Viral capsids are the protein shell of viruses. They can be formed as virus-like particles (VLPs) via the self-assembly process with or without DNA/RNA. It is interesting to reveal their self-assembly process in different virus capsid systems. In this study, both bacterial phage MS2 protein and shrimp white spot syndrome VP28 are recombinantly expressed in a heterologous system. MS2-VLP self-assembly process is known to be a nucleotide-dependent process. However, we found the VP28-VLP self-assembly process as a concentration-dependent process. We observed the particle size of VP28 increase continuously from ~8 nm to ~30 nm when the concentration increased from 62.5 μg/ml to 1 mg/ml. Based on this information, heparin-conjugated VP28-VLPs can be fabricated to enhance the anti-thrombosis function of heparin accordingly. Furthermore, MS2-VLPs have been utilized to encapsulate hydrophobic cargoes and characterized for their drug loading/unloading efficiency. We are actively working to study the delivery efficacy of our both nano-formulation. Moreover, these VLPs did not induce any immune response in animal studies. Therefore, these VLPs will have a huge impact on the application of drugs/gene delivery.

*This project was supported by NSTC 110-2923-M-009 -005 -MY3, and NSTC 111-2112-M-A49-025, Taiwan. This work is particularly supported by the Ministry of Education through the SPROUT Project-Center for Intelligent Drug Systems and Smart Biodevices (IDS2B) of NYCU, Taiwan.

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Presenters

  • Chia-Ching Chang

    • Natl Yang Ming Chiao Tung Univ

Authors

  • Chia-Ching Chang

    • Natl Yang Ming Chiao Tung Univ

  • Pragati Vishwakarma

    • Kusuma School of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi 110016, India

  • Hussein Reda Hussein

    • Department of Biological Science and Technology, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University

  • Chia-Yu Chang

    • Department of Biological Science and Technology, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan

  • Yini Zhang

    • Department of Materials Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

  • Chih-Yu Yang

    • Institute of Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei, Taiwan

  • Yu-Chaun Liang

    • Agricultural Biotechnology Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taiwan

  • Fu-Rong Chen

    • Department of Materials Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
    • City University of Hong Kong

  • Tapan Kumar Chaudhuri

    • Kusuma School of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi 110016, India