Bleomycin loaded exosomes enhanced antitumor therapeutic efficacy and reduced toxicity.

BACKGROUND: Bleomycin (BLM) is a chemotherapeutic agent with potent antitumor activity against the tumor. However, lung fibrosis is the main drawback that limits BLM use. Tumor targeted, safe, efficient and natural delivery of BLM is important to increase the effectiveness and reduce the toxic side effects. Although tumor derived Exosomes (Exo), provide a potential vehicle for in vivo drug delivery due to their cell tropism. This study primarily focuses on generating a natural delivery platform for Exo loaded with BLM and testing its therapeutic efficacy against cancer. METHODS: Exosomes were isolated from cancer cells and incubated with BLM. Exo were characterized by transmission electron microscopy, western blot analysis and nanoparticle tracking analysis. We performed in vitro and in vivo analyses to evaluate the effect of Exo-BLM. RESULTS: Exosomes loaded with BLM are highly cancer targeting and cause the cytotoxicity of tumor cells by ROS. The fluorescence images showed that Exo-BLM accumulated in cancer cells. The results revealed that Exo-BLM induces tumor cell apoptosis by the caspase pathway. In vivo, the treatment of Exo-BLM showed targeted ability and enhanced the antitumor activity. CONCLUSION: This study provides an avenue for specific BLM therapeutics with minimal side effects.

Biocompatible exosomes nanodrug cargo for cancer cell bioimaging and drug delivery.

Therapy against cancer remains a daunting issue for human health, despite remarkable innovations in many areas of pathology. In situ biosynthesized nanoclusters bestow a novel remedy for carcinogenic cell imaging. Exosomes have received special attention as an efficient tool for the diagnosis of various diseases, including cancers. All types of cells (healthy or diseased) generate exosomes, making them significantly unique for relevant disease diagnosis and treatment. In this contribution, we exploit the possibility of utilizing the exosomes to facilitate chemotherapeutics, viz. the combination of doxorubicin (Dox) and biosynthesized silver nanoclusters in cancer cells. Our study showed a new facile way for bioimaging of cancer cells using biosynthesized silver-DNA nanoclusters, and thus further targeting cancer cells using the relevant cancer exosomes as drug delivery cargo. After isolating exosomes from neoplastic cells, i.e. HeLa, loaded with the drug, and treating other neoplastic cells with cargo-loaded isolated exosomes, we found that cargo-loaded isolated exosomes can readily enter into the targeted cancer cells and efficiently kill these neoplastic cells. This raises the possibility of acting as a novel facile modality for target cancer theranostics with high efficiency and biocompability.