Incorporating stimulus-responsive character into filamentous virus assemblies

Engineered Phage-Based Cancer Vaccines: Current Advances and Future Directions

Bacteriophages have emerged as versatile tools in the field of bioengineering, with enormous potential in tissue engineering, vaccine development, and immunotherapy. The genetic makeup of phages can be harnessed for the development of novel DNA vaccines and antigen display systems, as they can provide a highly organized and repetitive presentation of antigens to immune cells. Bacteriophages have opened new possibilities for the targeting of specific molecular determinants of cancer cells. Phages can be used as anticancer agents and carriers of imaging molecules and therapeutics. In this review, we explored the role of bacteriophages and bacteriophage engineering in targeted cancer therapy. The question of how the engineered bacteriophages can interact with the biological and immunological systems is emphasized to comprehend the underlying mechanism of phage use in cancer immunotherapy. The effectiveness of phage display technology in identifying high-affinity ligands for substrates, such as cancer cells and tumor-associated molecules, and the emerging field of phage engineering and its potential in the development of effective cancer treatments are discussed. We also highlight phage usage in clinical trials as well as the related patents. This review provides a new insight into engineered phage-based cancer vaccines.

Synthetic phage for tissue regeneration

Controlling structural organization and signaling motif display is of great importance to design the functional tissue regenerating materials. Synthetic phage, genetically engineered M13 bacteriophage has been recently introduced as novel tissue regeneration materials to display a high density of cell-signaling peptides on their major coat proteins for tissue regeneration purposes. Structural advantages of their long-rod shape and monodispersity can be taken together to construct nanofibrous scaffolds which support cell proliferation and differentiation as well as direct orientation of their growth in two or three dimensions. This review demonstrated how functional synthetic phage is designed and subsequently utilized for tissue regeneration that offers potential cell therapy.

Directed self-assembly of CdS quantum dots on bacteriophage P22 coat protein templates

The hierarchical organization of inorganic nanostructures has potential applications in diverse areas such as photocatalytic systems, composites, drug delivery and biomedicine. An attractive approach for this purpose is the use of biological organisms as templates since they often possess highly ordered arrays of protein molecules that can be genetically engineered for specific binding. Indeed, recent studies have shown that viruses can be used as versatile templates for the assembly of a variety of nanostructured materials because of their unique structural and chemical diversity. These highly ordered protein templates can be employed or adapted for specific binding interactions. Herein we report the directed self-assembly of independently synthesized 5 nm CdS nanocrystal quantum dots on ∼60 nm procapsid shells derived from wild-type P22 bacteriophage. The bacteriophage P22 shell is comprised of hexameric and pentameric clusters of subunits known as capsomeres. The pre-synthesized CdS QDs show the corresponding hexameric and pentameric patterns of assembly on these P22 shells, possibly by interacting with particular protein pockets.

Controlling forces and pathways in self-assembly using viruses and DNA

The ability of both viruses and DNA to self-assemble in solution has continues to enable numerous applications at the nanoscale. Here we review the relevant interactions dictating the assembly of these structures, as well as discussing how they can be exploited experimentally. Because self-assembly is a process, we discuss various strategies for achieving spatial and temporal control. Finally, we highlight a few examples of recent advances that exploit the features of these nanostructures.