ABSTRACT
This study demonstrates the potential of using biological nanoparticles to deliver RNA therapeutics targeting programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) as a treatment strategy for cholangiocarcinoma (CCA). RNA therapeutics offer prospects for intracellular immune modulation, but effective clinical translation requires appropriate delivery strategies. Milk-derived nanovesicles were decorated with epithelial cellular adhesion molecule (EpCAM) aptamers and used to deliver PD-L1 small interfering RNA (siRNA) or Cas9 ribonucleoproteins directly to CCA cells. In vitro, nanovesicle treatments reduced PD-L1 expression in CCA cells while increasing degranulation, cytokine release, and tumor cell cytotoxicity when tumor cells were co-cultured with T cells or natural killer cells. Similarly, immunomodulation was observed in multicellular spheroids that mimicked the tumor microenvironment. Combining targeted therapeutic vesicles loaded with siRNA to PD-L1 with gemcitabine effectively reduced tumor burden in an immunocompetent mouse CCA model compared with controls. This proof-of-concept study demonstrates the potential of engineered targeted nanovesicle platforms for delivering therapeutic RNA cargoes to tumors, as well as their use in generating effective targeted immunomodulatory therapies for difficult-to-treat cancers such as CCA.