Synthetic virus developed to deliver a new generation of medicines

Researchers at the universities of Wageningen, Eindhoven, Leiden and Nijmegen have developed a synthetic virus. This can be used in the future to ‘package’ new generations of medicines consisting of large biomolecules and to deliver them into diseased cells, by a natural process. Prof.dr.ir. Paul van der Schoot at TU/e was responsible for the basic theoretical research. The results also confirm that he has solved a thirty-year-old question. The work was published in Nature Nanotechnology. New types of medicines consist of large biomolecules such as DNA and RNA. Delivering these to diseased cells is challenging. For example DNA is inherently unable to penetrate inside cells, and is quickly broken down. This is why natural viruses which have been made harmless are used to deliver these medicines. Viruses can efficiently penetrate into cells, but the process of making natural viruses harmless has not yet been perfected. Scientists are therefore searching for alternatives. Thirty years The...