Exosomes as Natural Nanoparticles – Enhanced Anti-Neoplastic Effects with Imaging Modalities

Abstract

Cancer is one of the most feared and fatal diseases known to man. With not one cause, and not one cure, it is easy to lose human lives to this deadly disease. Modern day chemical science and drug discovery have permitted man to prolong survival of cancer patients, but it frequently results in relapse after remission. This indicates that some subpopulation of the initial tumor cells might have escaped chemical treatment, allowing for relapse in a few years. Often this has been attributed to the non-specific nature of these drugs; however, it is possible to improve targeting using cell-derived nano-dimension based vesicles known as exosomes. In this study, exosomes are isolated from existing cell cultures to aid in cell-specific targeting. They are used to load and subsequently analyze the delivery of the drug epirubicin, which is a fluorescent epimer of doxorubicin and demonstrates similar anticancer properties, with the added benefits of low cardiac damage and fluorescence. The fluorescent property of epirubicin within the exosome will allow tracking of the molecule within cancer cells, to elaborate the mechanism of uptake as well as death. Therefore, engineered exosomes depict an alternative to conventional direct chemotherapeutic agents with elaborate courses of action to eliminate cancer cells.