Major stumbling blocks in the production of fully synthetic materials designed to feature virus recognition properties are that the target is large and its self-assembled architecture is fragile. Here we describe a synthetic strategy to produce organic/inorganic nanoparticulate hybrids that recognize non-enveloped icosahedral viruses in water at concentrations down to the picomolar range. We demonstrate that these systems bind a virus that, in turn, acts as a template during the nanomaterial synthesis. These virus imprinted particles then display remarkable selectivity and affinity. The reported method, which is based on surface imprinting using silica nanoparticles that act as a carrier material and organosilanes serving as biomimetic building blocks, goes beyond simple shape imprinting. We demonstrate the formation of a chemical imprint, comparable to the formation of biosilica, due to the template effect of the virion surface on the synthesis of the recognition material.

Functional recognition imprints of virus-like particles, at the surface of silica particles, were generated following a strategy based on protein-templated polycondensation of organosilanes.

Polycationic calixarene-based solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) have been loaded at their surface with DNA and chitosan and studied for their ability to transfect mammalian cells.

An amphiphilic calix[4]arene derivative bearing four guanidino moieties at the upper rim and four dodecyl chains at the lower rim was shown to form stable solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) in water. The study of the interactions of these cationic SLNs with DNA revealed a sequence-dependent groove binding mechanism.