Engineering protein nanocages as carriers for biomedical applications

Bhaskar, Sathyamoorthy; Lim, Sierin

e display. 92 A variety of cancer vaccines could be developed by using Toll-like receptor agonist CpG peptide-loaded protein nanocages. 8 Vaccines against respiratory infections, such as influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, have been explored. H1N1-virus specific hemagglutinin was fused genetically to ferritin subunit such that eight trimeric viral spikes were presented on the outer surface after the self-assembly of the nanocage (Figure 14 ). 91 Respiratory syncytial viral epitopes have been displayed on VLPs such as baculovirus and Newcastle disease virus. 95, 96 Chlamydia trachomatis immunogenic epitope PmpG-1-loaded vault nanocages, vaginally injected in mice, stimulated specific T-cell responses against the pathogen. 97 The engineered protein nanocage-based vaccines have been shown to induce protective immunity.