Engineering Tobacco Mosaic Virus and Its Virus-Like-Particles for Synthesis of Biotemplated Nanomaterials

Biomolecules are increasingly attractive templates for the synthesis of functional nanomaterials. Chief among them is the plant tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) due to its high aspect ratio, narrow size distribution, diverse biochemical functionalities presented on the surface, and compatibility with a number of chemical conjugations. These properties are also easily manipulated by genetic modification to enable the synthesis of a range of metallic and non-metallic nanomaterials for diverse applications. This article reviews the characteristics of TMV and related viruses, and their virus-like particle (VLP) derivatives, and how these may be manipulated to extend their use and function. A focus of recent efforts has been on greater understanding and control of the self-assembly processes that drive biotemplate formation. How these features have been exploited in engineering applications such as, sensing, catalysis, and energy storage are briefly outlined. While control of VLP surface features is well-established, fewer tools exist to control VLP self-assembly, which limits efforts to control template uniformity and synthesis of certain templated nanomaterials. However, emerging advances in synthetic biology, machine learning, and other fields promise to accelerate efforts to control template uniformity and nanomaterial synthesis enabling more widescale industrial use of VLP-based biotemplates.     

Alterations of MCF-7 human breast cancer cell after prostaglandins PGA1 and PGF2 alpha treatment

Treatment of monolayer cultures of MCF-7 cells with prostaglandins PGA1 and PGF2 alpha inhibited cell proliferation, reduced the rate of labeled precursor incorporation into DNA, RNA, and protein, and induced morphological changes in a dose-dependent manner. The rate of [3H]thymidine incorporation was increased by PGA1 at 10(-10)-10(-8) M, while a sharp decrease was observed at 10(-6)-10(-4) M (p less than 0.05 and p less than 0.005). PGF2 alpha inhibited [3H]thymidine incorporation at all concentrations tested. Similar results were obtained for [3H]uridine incorporation with both PGs. PGA1 inhibited [3H]leucine incorporation at 10(-4) M, but increased incorporation at 10(-10)-10(-6) M. At the ultrastructural level, neither PG induced morphological alterations at 10(-12)-10(-8) M. However, at 10(-6)-10(-4) M both PGA1 and PGF2 alpha diminished the number and size of cell surface projections; some cells appeared to completely lack microvilli. Disorganization of mitochondrial cristae and increased electron density of the matrix were also evident.