Viruses are natural nanocarriers that deliver various biological cargos, such as DNA, RNA, and proteins. We are developing a new nanocarrier by mimicking the early mechanism of infection by hepatitis B virus (HBV). When the HBV envelope L protein is overexpressed in yeast cells, hollow nanoparticles displaying L proteins are synthesized. This nanoparticle, namely a bio-nanocapsule (BNC), can specifically attach to, and then internalize into, human hepatic cells by implementing the early mechanism of infection by HBV. In this review, we outlined the cellular uptake mechanism of HBV/BNC linking to L protein function. The L protein contains several functional domains in the pre-S1 region, including the fusogenic domain and the heparin-binding domain. The fusogenic domain corresponding to the pre-S1(9-24) region is responsible for the low pH-dependent membrane fusion of BNC. The heparin-binding domain corresponding to the pre-S1(30-42) region has a strong affinity to heparin as compared to that of known heparin-binding peptides, such as vitronectin and gp120 in human immunodeficiency virus-1. This heparin-binding domain binds to heparan sulfate proteoglycan (HSPG) at the cell surface of human hepatic cells. These functional domains are present in any virus, thus, these viral envelope proteins are very useful in designing novel DDS nanocarriers.
Keywords: biomimicking; drug delivery; nanoparticle; virus.