Virion-derived nanospheres for selective delivery of therapeutic and diagnostic agents to cancer cells

1. A method of selectively delivering an agent to at least one tumor in a subject, the method comprising administering a tumor tropic nanosphere particle to a subject, wherein the tumor tropic nanosphere particle comprises a mutated human papillomavirus (HPV) L1 capsid protein encoded by the nucleic acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2, without a heterologous targeting agent, is associated with an agent, and is free of host cell nucleic acid and viral nucleic acid.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the nanosphere particle comprises wild-type HPV L2 capsid protein.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the modified HPV L1capsid protein has an amino acid that is PEGylated.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one tumor is pre-malignant, malignant, or metastatic.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one tumor is a non-mucosal tumor, is a solid tumor, or contains cancer stem cells.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one tumor is a carcinoma, melanoma, an astrocytoma, an atypical teratoid rhaboid tumor, a bone or connective tissue tumor, a brain cyst, a choroid plexus tumor, a craniopharyngioma, an ependymoma, a germ cell tumor, a glioblastoma, a glioma, a hemangioma, a juvenile pilocytic astrocytoma, a lipoma, a lymphoma, a medulloblastoma, a meningioma, a neurofibroma, a neuronal tumor, a mixed neuronal-glial tumor, an oligoastrocytoma, and oligodendroglioma, a pineal tumor, a pituitary tumor, a primitive neuroectodermal tumor or a schwannoma.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one tumor is located in the breast, cervix, ovary, testis, prostate, lung, lymph node, stomach, intestine, colon, brain, bladder or a combination thereof.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the agent is a therapeutic agent, an anti-cancer agent or a diagnostic agent.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the agent is a therapeutic agent or an anti-cancer agent that is delivered to the subject in a therapeutically effective amount to treat the tumor.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the therapeutic agent is an inorganic molecule, an organic molecule or a biologic active molecule.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the therapeutic agent comprises a small molecule, a protein, a peptide, an antibody, a toxin, a nucleic acid, a radioisotope, a radiolabeled molecule, a metal, an inducer of DNA methylation, a modulator of gene expression, an immune modulator, an enzyme inhibitor, a kinase inhibitor, an apoptosis inducer, a metabolism inhibitor, or any combination thereof.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the nucleic acid is an siRNA molecule, an shRNA molecule, a microRNA, a long non coding RNA, a hybrid DNA-RNA, a DNA molecule, an antisense molecule, a viral gene cassette, or any combination thereof.

13. The method of claim 8 , wherein the diagnostic agent is an imaging agent or a contrast agent.

14. The method of claim 8 , wherein the diagnostic agent is labeled with a detectable label.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the detectable label is a fluorescent or radioactive label.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the agent is encapsulated with the nanosphere particle, mixed with the capsid proteins in the nanosphere particle, and/or chemically linked to an amino acid of one or more capsid proteins in the nanosphere particle.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mutated HPV L1 capsid protein is expressed, isolated and purified as a monomer or as an oligomeric capsomere from a host cell expression system.

18. The method of claim 2 , wherein the mutated HPV L1 capsid protein and the L2 capsid protein are expressed from different nucleic acids in a host cell expression system.

19. The method of claim 17 , wherein the host cell expression system is a bacterial, a yeast, an insect, a plant or a mammalian host cell expression system.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the bacterial host cell expression system is an Escherichia coli host cell expression system.

21. The method of claim 17 , wherein the capsid proteins and/or capsomeres are assembled in vitro to form the nanosphere particle.

22. A method of producing a nanosphere particle for selectively delivering a therapeutic or diagnostic agent to a tumor in a subject, the method comprising,

providing a mutated human papillomavirus (HPV) L1 capsid protein encoded by the nucleic acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2 that is free of host cell nucleic acid and viral nucleic acid, and

reassembling the capsid protein in the presence of a therapeutic agent or diagnostic agent.

23. A method of producing a nanosphere particle loaded with a therapeutic or diagnostic agent, the method comprising,

(a) recombinantly expressing a mutated human papillomavirus (HPV) L1 capsid protein encoded by the nucleic acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2 and wild-type HPV L2 capsid protein in bacterial cells;

(b) isolating from the bacterial cells mutated HPV L1 capsid protein encoded by the nucleic acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2, wild-type HPV L2 capsid protein, capsomeres comprising mutated HPV L1 capsid protein encoded by the nucleic acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2 and wild-type L2 capsid protein, or a combination thereof;

(c) combining the capsid proteins and/or capsomeres of (b) with the agent and reassembly buffer containing salt and HEPES buffer, or salt and Histidine-HCl buffer; and

(d) dialyzing the combination of capsid proteins and/or capsomeres and reassembly buffer of (c) to produce HPV nanosphere particles loaded with the agent.

24. A method of delivering and evaluating a cancer therapy comprising:

(a) identifying a subject with cancer;

(b) labeling tumor tropic nanosphere particles that comprise a mutated-human papillomavirus (HPV) L1 capsid protein encoded by the nucleic acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2;

(c) loading the tumor tropic nanosphere particles with a therapeutic agent;

(d) administering a detectable amount of the nanosphere particles to the subject; and

(e) determining the presence or amount of the nanosphere particles in the subject during and after a period of a treatment.