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Published online: 29 April 2009 | doi:10.1038/nchina.2009.89
Nanosensors: A sheep in wolf's clothing
Ai Lin Chun
Abstract
Quantum dots encapsulated in the protein coat of a virus can enter mammalian cells in a similar way to the complete virus, offering a better understanding of pathogen–host interactions
Original article citation
et al. Imaging viral behavior in mammalian cells with self-assembled capsid–quantum-dot hybrid particles. Small 5, 718–726 (2009).Introduction
© (2009) Wiley Interscience
Viral infection is a complex process, and tracing the process in living cells is a challenge. One way to do this is to label the virus surface with 'quantum dots', but this approach can lower the infectivity of the virus. Xianen Zhang at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Wuhan and co-workers1 have now shown that encapsulating quantum dots inside the protein coat of the virus can be a smart alternative to surface labelling.
The protein coat (capsid) of simian virus 40 comprises one major and two minor proteins. The team encapsulated quantum dots in the major protein to form virus-like particles (VLPs) and visualized how they infect mammalian cells. The VLPs bind, enter and move within the cells in the same way as simian viruses.
When VLPs enter the host cells, they travel along the microtubules and accumulate in the endoplasmic reticulum and around the periphery of the nucleus. The researchers took time-lapse images and found that VLPs (pictured top) took the same amount of time to accumulate around the periphery of the nucleus as simian virus (pictured bottom).
Although the VLPs are different from the actual virus in many aspects, the findings show that these particles show the same level and mode of infectivity, suggesting that the particles can be used to trace viruses in cells and deliver nanoparticles to various compartments for diagnostic applications.
The authors of this work are from:
State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China; College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China; School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
Reference
- Li, F. et al. Imaging viral behavior in mammalian cells with self-assembled capsid–quantum-dot hybrid particles. Small 5, 718–726 (2009). | Article | PubMed | ChemPort |
