Aptamer-Functionalized Exosomes: Elucidating the Cellular Uptake Mechanism and the Potential for Cancer-Targeted Chemotherapy

Anal Chem. 2019 Feb 5;91(3):2425-2430. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.8b05204. Epub 2019 Jan 24.

Abstract

Exosomes (Exos) are nanoscale natural vehicles for transporting biomolecules to facilitate cell-to-cell communication, indicating a high potential of them for delivering therapeutics/diagnostics. To improve their delivery capacity, a simple, noninvasive, and efficient strategy for functionalizing Exos with effective targeting ligands as well as elucidation of the cellular uptake mechanism of these functionalized Exos was found be to necessary, but remained a challenge. In this work, we used diacyllipid-aptamer conjugates as the targeting ligand to develop an aptamer-functionalized Exos (Apt-Exos) nanoplatform for cell type-specific delivery of molecular therapeutics. The cellular uptake mechanism of Apt-Exos was investigated in details, and distinct behavior was observed in comparison to free Exos. By combining the excellent molecular recognition capability of aptamers and the superiority of Exos as natural vehicles, Apt-Exos can efficiently deliver molecular drugs/fluorophores to target cancer cells, providing a promising delivery platform for cancer theranostics.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Antineoplastic Agents / pharmacology*
  • Aptamers, Nucleotide / chemistry*
  • Aptamers, Nucleotide / metabolism
  • Aptamers, Nucleotide / toxicity
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Doxorubicin / pharmacology*
  • Drug Carriers / chemistry*
  • Drug Carriers / metabolism
  • Drug Carriers / toxicity
  • Drug Liberation
  • Electroporation
  • Endocytosis / physiology
  • Exosomes / chemistry*
  • Exosomes / metabolism
  • Humans
  • Kinetics
  • Phospholipids / chemistry
  • Phospholipids / metabolism
  • Phospholipids / toxicity
  • Proof of Concept Study

Substances

  • Antineoplastic Agents
  • Aptamers, Nucleotide
  • Drug Carriers
  • Phospholipids
  • Doxorubicin