Virus imaging: Small 6/2009

The cover picture shows a fluorescence image of a living Vero cell being “infected” by capsid–quantum-dot (QD) hybrid nanoparticles through caveolae-mediated endocytosis. The hybrid nanoparticles are constructed by self-assembly of the major capsid protein of simian virus 40 (SV40) in the presence of QDs. When incubated with living cells, they are found to mimic the early infection steps of wild-type SV40, which confirms the feasibility of tracing viruses with encapsidated QDs in living cells. QD encapsidation may serve as a new strategy for ultrasensitive intracellular or in vivo imaging of viral behaviors and targeted nanoparticle delivery as well. For more information, please read the Full Paper “Imaging Viral Behaviors in Mammalian Cells with Self-Assembled Capsid–Quantum-Dot Hybrid Particles” by X.-E. Zhang et al. beginning on page 718.