Abstract
Nanotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that sits at the interface of chemistry, biology, materials science, and medicine. The utilization of materials derived from natural sources has allowed the harnessing of highly organized macromolecules for various applications in nanomedicine. Viral nanoparticles are both biocompatible and biodegradable and can be engineered chemically and genetically to impart new functionalities. Viral particles, for example, plant viruses with well-characterized properties. They are deemed as a natural, very robust, nanoscale assemblies. The virus particles can be chemically modified both externally and internally with high precision with various functionalities to act as a platform for the next-generation therapeutics, bio-imaging, drug targeting, and as drug carriers. Besides, the virus capsid can be genetically modified to introduce unnatural amino acids, which aid in monitoring the virus assembly and allowing the design of Nanocapsules for the loading with the desired anticancer drugs. Preserving the virus capsid allows the particles to be modified with targeting moieties to guide the nanoparticles to the diseased cells for selective imaging and treatment. Viruses are novel new type of nanomaterials with exciting potential in molecular imaging and drug delivery. Viral nanoparticles are deemed as a biodegradable and biocompatible and very suitable for in vivo and in vitro drug delivery and for molecular imaging tools.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Multidisciplinary Science and Advanced Technologies |
| Editors | Kaushik Pal, Fernando Gomes, Thinakaran Narayanan |
| Publisher | Nova Science Publishers, Inc. |
| Pages | 85-91 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781536191981 |
| Publication status | Published (in print/issue) - 27 Jan 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2021 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.
Keywords
- Drug delivery
- Molecular imaging
- Nanotechnology
- Viral nanoparticles
- Viruses
