Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are emerging as an alternative therapeutic delivery and vaccine platform. However, low efficiency of EV cargo loading and cellular secretion remains a substantial challenge for clinical utility. Therefore, we developed a “smart” polymeric micelle as the first nanoparticle-based cellular transfection tool for enhanced site-specific packaging of desired cargos into EVs. The functionalized polymeric micelles are designed to carry therapeutic peptides via photo-cleavable chemical groups for a photo-controlled, on-demand release of carried cargos into the cellular endocytic pathway for packaging into EVs. The photo-controlled release strategy is simple and effective for large-scale EV cellular manufacturing. The synthesized nanoparticles also tag specific cellular receptors for rapid cellular uptake and internationalization, leading to improved, high-efficient cargo loading. The novel nano-transfection method promotes cellular production of cargo loaded EVs, meeting demands for the high-efficient production of well-designed therapeutic EVs for enhanced drug delivery applications.
Learning Objectives:
obtain deeper knowledge about utilizing extracellular vesicles for cancer vaccine development.
understand the gaps in the current field of vaccine therapeutics and be able to develop solutions to overcome these current limitations.
explore a novel transfection method utilizing micelle polymer nanoparticles to enhance extracellular vesicle peptide loading capacity and improve the delivery of therapeutics.