Science Spotlight: Altering tissue tropism of virus-like particles

Two Chinese groups published Nature Communications articles describing improved tissue tropism of virus-like particles (VLPs) for delivering therapeutic cargo. 

Chinese Academy of Sciences researchers made VLPs with a Semliki Forest Virus backbone that can be equipped with fusogens, proteins that mediate the fusion of membranes to enable entry of VLP contents into specific host cells. The authors generated VLP candidates exhibiting enhanced in vivo blood-brain barrier penetration. The fusogens can be swapped out to customize tissue tropism...