An international team of chemists has developed a facile approach to constructing multicomponent synthetic polymers that mimic the natural formation of viral capsules. The team explains that the capsules are hierarchical in nature and incorporate peptides that can disrupt the cell membrane, nucleic acid binding components, a protective coating and a targeting outer ligand.

All these components held within a single nanoparticle have specific functions that can be utilised in the gene-delivery process. The novel tools would be fully customisable for particular therapeutic uses.

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• Multicomponent Synthetic Polymers with Viral-Mimetic Chemistry for Nucleic Acid Delivery,
  M. Soliman, R. Nasanit, S. R. Abulateefeh, S. Allen, M. C. Davies, S. S. Briggs, L. W. Seymour, J. A. Preece, A. M. Grabowska, S. A. Watson, C. Alexander,
  Mol. Pharmaceutics 2011.
  DOI: 10.1021/mp200108q