Plant-Produced Viral Nanoparticles Decorated with Nanobodies Against HER2 Improve Retention and Recruitment of Immune Cells in Solid Tumors

[EN] Potato virus X (PVX), a filamentous, positive-sense RNA plant virus, has been engineered into a molecular tool for diverse biotechnological applications, including cancer cell targeting. Here, we present the production and functional characterization of genetically-encoded PVX-derived nanoparti...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Lozano-Sánchez, Enrique|||0009-0000-1655-9296, Daròs, José-Antonio|||0000-0002-6535-2889, Moreno-Gonzalez, Miguel A., Steinmetz, Nicole F., Merwaiss, Fernando
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2026
País:España
Institución:Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV)
Repositorio:RiuNet. Repositorio Institucional de la Universitat Politécnica de Valéncia
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:dnet:riunet______::1c16e1e7ff8ab9156d114627d26957fe
Acceso en línea:https://riunet.upv.es/handle/10251/233577
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)
Human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2)
Nanobodies
Plant virus
Potato virus X (PVX)
Viral nanoparticles
Descripción
Sumario:[EN] Potato virus X (PVX), a filamentous, positive-sense RNA plant virus, has been engineered into a molecular tool for diverse biotechnological applications, including cancer cell targeting. Here, we present the production and functional characterization of genetically-encoded PVX-derived nanoparticles decorated with nanobodies targeting two common receptors in human cancer cells, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2). We first generated a series of PVX-derived nanoparticles displaying distinct nanobodies against EGFR and HER2 in Nicotiana benthamiana plants. Self-assembly and structural integrity of the recombinant nanoparticles were confirmed by immunogold electron microscopy. We next characterized in vitro the cancer-cell binding capacity of the different recombinant viral nanoparticles (VNPs) by flow cytometry and confocal microscopy. Select VNPs were further assayed in a pilot in vivo study using tumor-bearing mice. Preliminary results showed that nanobody decoration can increase retention time and myeloid cell recruitment in the tumor microenvironment in HER2+ mouse tumor models in vivo. Nanobody-displaying PVX-derived nanoparticles may constitute a new plant-produced biotechnological product for cancer immunotherapy.