Artificial Virus for Gene Therapy
May 12, 2015 | Terry Sharrer
Researchers have known for the past 25 years that the future of gene therapy depends on safer viral vectors. To this end, biochemists at the Institute of Biotechnology and Biomedicine (Barcelona, Spain) have developed “artificial viruses,” which actually are self-assembling protein nanoparticles that can encapsulate DNA and deliver it to the cell nucleus. “In chemical terms, the key lies in a combination of cation-peptide and hexahistidine placed respectively at the amino and C-terminus ends of the modular proteins.” MORE
Image Credit: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona