Recombinant papillomavirus-like particles have recently been shown to be highly effective for the prevention of papillomavirus infections and associated tumors, and a virus-like particle-based vaccine against the most prevalent HPV causing genital infection in humans will be developed in the near future. Another use of these virus-like particles may lie in gene therapy and DNA immunization. We report here that human papillomavirus-like particles composed of the major capsid protein (L1) of HPV-16 are able to package unrelated plasmid DNA in vitro and then to deliver this foreign DNA to eukaryotic cells with the subsequent expression of the encoded gene. The results indicate higher gene transfer than with DNA alone or with liposome. Virus-like particles are a very promising vehicle for delivering genetic material into target cells. Moreover, the preparation of the gene transfer vehicle is relatively easy.