Delivery of antisense peptide nucleic acid by gold nanoparticles for the inhibition of virus replication.

We aim to use peptide nucleic acid (PNA) for antisense therapy against bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV), a surrogate model of human hepatitis C virus, and introduce an optimal approach for delivering PNA into the cell. PNA was designed for hybridization to the 5'-untranslated region of BVDV RNA in order to form a heteroduplex structure and inhibit the translation and replication of virus. Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) were used as a delivery system for PNA. The cellular uptake of PNA-AuNPs and inhibition of BVDV infection in the middle stage of viral replication were found. Further research is warranted to develop AuNPs as a potential vehicle for delivering PNA in order to remove viruses from the infected cells.