Title:Virus as a Nanocarrier for Drug Delivery Redefining Medical
Therapeutics - A Status Report
Volume: 25
Issue: 10
Author(s): Sanjay Kumar Ojha*, Ritesh Pattnaik, Puneet Kumar Singh, Shubha Dixit, Snehasish Mishra, Sreyasi Pal and Subrat Kumar*
Affiliation:
- Pandorum Technologies Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore Bioinnovation Centre, Helix Biotech Park, Electronic City Phase 1,
Bengaluru - 560100, India
- School of Biotechnology, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) Deemed
University, Bhubaneswar - 751024, India
Keywords:
Drug delivery, synthetic nanoparticles, nanocarrier, virus, bio-nanocapsules, infectious disease.
Abstract: Over the last two decades, drug delivery systems have evolved at a tremendous pace.
Synthetic nanoparticles have played an important role in vaccine design and delivery as these have
shown improved safety and efficacy over conventional formulations. Nanocarriers formulated by
natural, biological building blocks have become an important tool in biomedicine. A successful
nanocarrier must possess specific properties like evading the host immune system, target
specificity, cellular entry, escape from endosomes, and the ability to release the active material into
the cytoplasm. The virus can perform some or all of these functions, making it a suitable candidate
as a naturally occurring nanocarrier. Viruses could be made non-infectious and non-replicative
without compromising their ability to penetrate cells, making them useful for a vast spectrum of
applications. Currently, many such carrier molecules as bio-nanocapsules are at various
development stages. This review covers the advances in the field of viruses as potential
nanocarriers and discusses the related technologies and strategies to target specific cells by using
virus-inspired nanocarriers. These virus-based nanocarriers could provide solutions to address
pressing and emerging concerns in infectious diseases in the future.