Hydrogels supplemented with nanoparticles derived from plant viruses for the fabrication of nanostructured materials for tissue engineering

Nanoparticles derived from Turnip mosaic virus, previously functionalized with human Epithelial Growth Factor made in plants, substantially improve ‘in vitro’ growth of cultured human fibroblasts.

Within the technologies related to biological tissue engineering it is common to use hydrogels that mimic the extracellular matrix. Often, the hydrogels need to be supplemented for the generation of tissue-specific constructs. Frequently, the supplementation is done using nanoparticles.

In this work, gelatin-methacryloyl hydrogels - also known as GelMa -, were supplemented with nanoparticles derived from Turnip mosaic virus (TuMV) chemically functionalized with plant-made human Epithelial Growth Factor. Upon the use of this hydrogel supplemented with TuMV-EGF nanoparticles derived from plant biotechnology, a 30% increase of the confluency of cultured human fibroblasts was achieved, in comparison with non-functionalized TuMV nanoparticles. The nanoparticles showed their suitability using different fabrication methods. Thus, TuMV-derived nanoparticles are a promising tool in biological tissue engineering with interesting biotechnological applications, such as organ regeneration of artificial meat fabrication.

This work represents a collaboration in which researchers from the CBGP ‘Plant Virus Biotechnology’ group have taken part, together with researchers from other institutions, such as Tecnológico de Monterrey and Autonomous University of Nuevo León (México) and the Spanish biotech company Agrenvec, S.L.

Original Paper:

González-Gamboa, I., Velázquez-Lam, E., Lobo-Zegers, M.J., Frías-Sánchez, A.I., Tavares-Negrete, J.A., Monroy-Borrego, A., Menchaca-Arrendondo, J.L., Williams, L., Lunello, P., Ponz, F., Alvarez, M.M., Trujillo-de Santiago, G. 2022. Gelatin-methacryloyl hydrogels containing turnip mosaic virus for fabrication of nanostructured materials for tissue engineering. Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology 10.