A potential nanobiotechnology platform based on infectious bursal disease subviral particles

• Published in: RSC advances 2012-03, Vol.2 (5), p.1970-1978
• Main Authors: Taghavian, Omid, Mandal, Manoj K, Steinmetz, Nicole F, Rasche, Stefan, Spiegel, Holger, Fischer, Rainer, Schillberg, Stefan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2046-2069; 2046-2069
• DOI: 10.1039/C2RA00857B

We describe a novel nanobiotechnology platform based on subviral particles derived from (IBD-SVPs). The major virus coat protein VP2 assembles into spherical, 23 nm SVPs when expressed as a heterologous protein in the yeast . We recovered up to 38 mg of IBD-SVPs at > 95% purity from 1 L of recombinant yeast culture. The purified particles were able to tolerate organic solvents up to 20% concentration (ethanol or dimethylsulfoxide), they resisted temperatures up to 65 °C and remained stable over a wide pH range (2.5-9.0). We achieved bioconjugation to the amine groups of lysine residues and to the carboxyl groups of aspartic and glutamic acid residues, allowing the functionalization of IBD-SVPs with biotin. The accessibility of surface amine groups was measured using Alexa Fluor 488 -hydroxysuccinimide (NHS) ester, an amine-selective fluorescent dye, revealing that approximately 60 dye molecules were attached to the surface of each particle. IBD-SVPs can therefore be exploited as a robust and versatile nanoscaffold to display diverse functional ligands.