Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Production methods for viral particles

  • Review
  • Published:
Biotechnology Letters Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Viral particles and virus-like particles (VLPs) or capsids are becoming important vehicles and templates in bio-imaging, drug delivery and materials sciences. Viral particles are prepared by infecting the host organism but VLPs are obtained from cells that express a capsid protein. Some VLPs are disassembled and then re-assembled to incorporate a material of interest. Cell-free systems, which are amenable to manipulating the viral assembly process, are also available for producing viral particles. Regardless of the production system employed, the particles are functionalized by genetic and/or chemical engineering. Here, we review various methods for producing and functionalizing viral particles and VLPs, and we discuss the merits of each system.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Cadena-Nava RD, Hu Y, Garmann RF, Ng B, Zelikin AN, Knobler CM, Gelbart WM (2011) Exploiting fluorescent polymers to probe the self-assembly of virus-like particles. J Phys Chem B 115:2386–2391

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chen PY, Dang X, Klug MT, Qi J, Dorval Courchesne NM, Burpo FJ, Fang N, Hammond PT, Belcher AM (2013) Versatile three-dimensional virus-based template for dye-sensitized solar cells with improved electron transport and light harvesting. ACS Nano 7:6563–6574

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chuan YP, Fan YY, Lua LH, Middelberg AP (2010) Virus assembly occurs following a pH- or Ca2+-triggered switch in the thermodynamic attraction between structural protein capsomeres. J R Soc Interface 7:409–421

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chuan YP, Rivera-Hernandez T, Wibowo N, Connors NK, Wu Y, Hughes FK, Lua LH, Middelberg AP (2013) Effects of pre-existing anti-carrier immunity and antigenic element multiplicity on efficacy of a modular virus-like particle vaccine. Biotechnol Bioeng 110:2343–2351

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Enomoto T, Kukimoto I, Kawano MA, Yamaguchi Y, Berk AJ, Handa H (2011) In vitro reconstitution of SV40 particles that are composed of VP1/2/3 capsid proteins and nucleosomal DNA and direct efficient gene transfer. Virology 420:1–9

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fiedler JD, Brown SD, Lau JL, Finn MG (2010) RNA-directed packaging of enzymes within virus-like particles. Angew Chem 49:9648–9651

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hovlid ML, Steinmetz NF, Laufer B, Lau JL, Kuzelka J, Wang Q, Hyypia T, Nemerow GR, Kessler H, Manchester M, Finn MG (2012) Guiding plant virus particles to integrin-displaying cells. Nanoscale 4:3698–3705

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kitai Y, Fukuda H, Enomoto T, Asakawa Y, Suzuki T, Inouye S, Handa H (2011) Cell selective targeting of a simian virus 40 virus-like particle conjugated to epidermal growth factor. J Biotechnol 155:251–256

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kobayashi T, Nakamura Y, Mikami S, Masutani M, Machida K, Imataka H (2012) Synthesis of encephalomyocarditis virus in a cell-free system: from DNA to RNA virus in one tube. Biotechnol Lett 34:67–73

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kobayashi T, Yukigai J, Ueda K, Machida K, Masutani M, Nishino Y, Miyazawa A, Imataka H (2013) Purification and visualization of encephalomyocarditis virus synthesized by an in vitro protein expression system derived from mammalian cell extract. Biotechnol Lett 35:309–314

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kobayashi T, Machida K, Imataka H (2014) Human cell extract-derived cell-free systems for virus synthesis. Methods Mol Biol 1118:149–156

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lee YJ, Yi H, Kim WJ, Kang K, Yun DS, Strano MS, Ceder G, Belcher AM (2009) Fabricating genetically engineered high-power lithium-ion batteries using multiple virus genes. Science 324:1051–1055

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lee YJ, Lee Y, Oh D, Chen T, Ceder G, Belcher AM (2010) Biologically activated noble metal alloys at the nanoscale: for lithium ion battery anodes. Nano Lett 10:2433–2440

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Liew MW, Rajendran A, Middelberg AP (2010) Microbial production of virus-like particle vaccine protein at gram-per-litre levels. J Biotechnol 150:224–231

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nuraje N, Dang X, Qi J, Allen MA, Lei Y, Belcher AM (2012) Biotemplated synthesis of perovskite nanomaterials for solar energy conversion. Adv Mater 24:2885–2889

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Oh D, Qi J, Lu YC, Zhang Y, Shao-Horn Y, Belcher AM (2013) Biologically enhanced cathode design for improved capacity and cycle life for lithium-oxygen batteries. Nat Commun 4:2756

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Patel KG, Swartz JR (2011) Surface functionalization of virus-like particles by direct conjugation using azide-alkyne click chemistry. Bioconjugate Chem 22:376–387

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Patterson DP, Prevelige PE, Douglas T (2012) Nanoreactors by programmed enzyme encapsulation inside the capsid of the bacteriophage P22. ACS Nano 6:5000–5009

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Patterson DP, Schwarz B, Waters RS, Gedeon T, Douglas T (2014) Encapsulation of an enzyme cascade within the bacteriophage P22 virus-like particle. ACS Chem Biol 9:359–365

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pokorski JK, Hovlid ML, Finn MG (2011) Cell targeting with hybrid Qbeta virus-like particles displaying epidermal growth factor. Chembiochem 12:2441–2447

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pushko P, Pumpens P, Grens E (2013) Development of virus-like particle technology from small highly symmetric to large complex virus-like particle structures. Intervirology 56:141–165

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rhee JK, Hovlid M, Fiedler JD, Brown SD, Manzenrieder F, Kitagishi H, Nycholat C, Paulson JC, Finn MG (2011) Colorful virus-like particles: fluorescent protein packaging by the Qbeta capsid. Biomacromolecules 12:3977–3981

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rurup WF, Verbij F, Koay MS, Blum C, Subramaniam V, Cornelissen JJ (2014) Predicting the loading of virus-like particles with fluorescent proteins. Biomacromolecules 15:558–563

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Soto CM, Ratna BR (2010) Virus hybrids as nanomaterials for biotechnology. Curr Opin Biotechnol 21:426–438

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Strable E, Finn MG (2009) Chemical modification of viruses and virus-like particles. Curr Top Microbiol Immunol 327:1–21

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wen AM, Shukla S, Saxena P, Aljabali AA, Yildiz I, Dey S, Mealy JE, Yang AC, Evans DJ, Lomonossoff GP, Steinmetz NF (2012) Interior engineering of a viral nanoparticle and its tumor homing properties. Biomacromolecules 13:3990–4001

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wu Y, Yang H, Shin HJ (2014) Encapsulation and crystallization of Prussian blue nanoparticles by cowpea chlorotic mottle virus capsids. Biotechnol Lett 36:515–521

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Xing L, Li TC, Mayazaki N, Simon MN, Wall JS, Moore M, Wang CY, Takeda N, Wakita T, Miyamura T, Cheng RH (2010) Structure of hepatitis E virion-sized particle reveals an RNA-dependent viral assembly pathway. J Biol Chem 285:33175–33183

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yi H, Ghosh D, Ham MH, Qi J, Barone PW, Strano MS, Belcher AM (2012) M13 phage-functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes as nanoprobes for second near-infrared window fluorescence imaging of targeted tumors. Nano Lett 12:1176–1183

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zhao Q, Chen W, Chen Y, Zhang L, Zhang J, Zhang Z (2011) Self-assembled virus-like particles from rotavirus structural protein VP6 for targeted drug delivery. Bioconjugate Chem 22:346–352

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the fact that viral particles and VLPs have been produced by many authors in addition to those cited here. We apologize to authors whose papers were not mentioned, due to the limited space in this review article.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, University of Hyogo, Himeji, 671-2201, Japan

    Kodai Machida & Hiroaki Imataka

Authors
  1. Kodai Machida
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Hiroaki Imataka
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hiroaki Imataka.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Machida, K., Imataka, H. Production methods for viral particles. Biotechnol Lett 37, 753–760 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-014-1741-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-014-1741-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation