Pharmaceutics (Aug 2020)

Synthetic Virus-Derived Nanosystems (SVNs) for Delivery and Precision Docking of Large Multifunctional DNA Circuitry in Mammalian Cells

  • Francesco Aulicino,
  • Julien Capin,
  • Imre Berger

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics12080759
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 8
p. 759

Abstract

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DNA delivery is at the forefront of current research efforts in gene therapy and synthetic biology. Viral vectors have traditionally dominated the field; however, nonviral delivery systems are increasingly gaining traction. Baculoviruses are arthropod-specific viruses that can be easily engineered and repurposed to accommodate and deliver large sequences of exogenous DNA into mammalian cells, tissues, or ultimately organisms. These synthetic virus-derived nanosystems (SVNs) are safe, readily customized, and can be manufactured at scale. By implementing clustered regularly interspaced palindromic repeats (CRISPR) associated protein (CRISPR/Cas) modalities into this system, we developed SVNs capable of inserting complex DNAs into genomes, at base pair precision. We anticipate a major role for SVNs as an attractive alternative to viral vectors in accelerating genome engineering and gene therapy applications in the future.

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