Researchers modify hepatitis B virus for targeted drug delivery

Stanford researchers have redesigned the hepatitis B virus so that it is invisible to the immune system and can target certain cells without delivering an infectious payload. This report was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and professor of chemical engineering and bioengineering James Swartz, who led the report, hopes his findings will advance targeted drug delivery. Targeted drug delivery, which enables treatment to target specific, diseased cells, is one of the main goals of modern medicine. “We call this a smart particle,” Swartz said in a Stanford News article. “We make it smart by adding molecular tags that act like addresses to send the therapeutic payload where we want it to go.” Viruses are similarly able to target specific cells but instead carry an infectious payload. As a result, the immune system attacks viruses in the body. Working with the virus that causes hepatitis B, Swartz and Yuan Lu,...