Virus-like particle-based nanocarriers as an emerging platform for drug delivery

Abstract

New nanocarrier technologies are emerging, and they have great potential for improving drug delivery, targeting efficiency and bioavailability. Virus-like particles (VLPs) are natural nanoparticles from animal and plant viruses and bacteriophages. Hence, VLPs present several great advantages, such as morphological uniformity, biocompatibility, reduced toxicity and easy functionalisation. VLPs can deliver many active ingredients to the target tissue and have great potential as a nanocarrier to overcome the limitations associated with other nanoparticles. This review will focus primarily on the construction and applications of VLPs, particularly as a novel nanocarrier to deliver active ingredients. Herein, the main methods for the construction, purification and characterisation of VLPs, as well as various VLP-based materials used in delivery systems are summarised. The biological distribution of VLPs in drug delivery, phagocyte-mediated clearance and toxicity are also discussed.

Keywords:

• Virus-like particles
• delivery system
• nanocarriers
• packaging strategies
• targeting

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (81703426); Natural Science Foundation of Heilongjiang Province (LH2019H010); China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2019M651312); Heilongjiang Postdoctoral Fund (LBH-Z18106); Health Commission of Heilongjiang Province (2017-170); Innovation and Entrepreneurship Programme for College Students in Heilongjiang Province (201910226137); Key research and development and promotion projects of Henan Province (192102310154); Innovation and entrepreneurship training program of Zhengzhou University (202010459148).