Synthetic Virus-Derived Nanosystems (SVNs) for Delivery and Precision Docking of Large Multifunctional DNA Circuitry in Mammalian Cells

• Main Authors: Francesco Aulicino, Julien Capin, Imre Berger
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-08-01
• Series: Pharmaceutics
• Subjects: baculovirus; CRISPR; gene editing; genome engineering; precision DNA docking
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4923/12/8/759

DNA delivery is at the forefront of current research efforts in gene therapy and synthetic biology. Viral vectors have traditionally dominated the field; however, nonviral delivery systems are increasingly gaining traction. Baculoviruses are arthropod-specific viruses that can be easily engineered and repurposed to accommodate and deliver large sequences of exogenous DNA into mammalian cells, tissues, or ultimately organisms. These synthetic virus-derived nanosystems (SVNs) are safe, readily customized, and can be manufactured at scale. By implementing clustered regularly interspaced palindromic repeats (CRISPR) associated protein (CRISPR/Cas) modalities into this system, we developed SVNs capable of inserting complex DNAs into genomes, at base pair precision. We anticipate a major role for SVNs as an attractive alternative to viral vectors in accelerating genome engineering and gene therapy applications in the future.