Controlling nanocage assembly, towards developing a one-health “plug & play” platform for targeted therapy

Abstract

There is a growing interest in developing one-health “plug and play” platforms for making different therapeutics/prophylactics to target various biological entities such as viruses, cancer cells, or bacteria. Such a platform could benefit from advances in artificial intelligence (AI) for sustainable manufacturing. In this respect, naturally occurring protein nanocages, such as iron-storage protein ferritin, are emerging as ideal candidates for various applications in nanomedicine. However, the spontaneous self-assembly of these naturally occurring nanocages has been a bottleneck for their application as a one-health “plug and play” platform. In this review, we will take a fresh look at the application of natural protein nanocages in nanomedicine by discussing our current understanding of their self-assembly process. We highlight our recent progress in engineering ferritin subunits to create a one-health “plug and play” platform technology to develop various therapeutic or prophylactic nanomedicines. We will discuss the advantages of this technology, its implications for understanding nanocage assembly, and potential future application areas.