Abstract

Biological containers such as virus-like particles (VLPs) have gained increasing interest in the fields of gene therapy and vaccine development. Several virus-based materials have been studied, but the toxicity, biodistribution, and immunology of these systems still require extensive investigation. The specific goal of this review is to provide information about nodaviruses, which are causative infectious agents of insects and aquatic animals, but not humans. By understanding the structure and biophysical properties of such viruses, further chemical or genetic modification for novel nanocarriers could be developed. Therefore, their application for therapeutic purposes, particularly in humans, is of great interest.