This invention solves the problem of how to increase the yield of exosomes, as well as how to create genetically modified exosomes.
Unmet Need
Each year in the US, ~1.7 million new patients are diagnosed with cancer and of those, 600,000 will die (see CDC 2022). The treatment of many cancers relies on the delivery of drugs (small molecules, peptides, and other biological molecules) to destroy the cancer (chemotherapy). While many chemotherapies have been highly successful at destroying the tumor, the effectiveness is limited by off target side effects and lack of bioavailability and distribution (see Lorscheider, M. et al 2021). A major improvement to decreasing off target interactions of the drug is by making drug delivery systems specific to the cell type affected. Nanoparticle technology has been especially important in targeted delivery as they are small in size and the surface proteins can be manipulated to interact only with desired cells. However, nanoparticles (NPs) have not been successful at penetrating solid tumors and have the potential to activate the immune system (see Mitragotri, S. et al 2014 and Lorscheider, M. et al 2021). The ideal drug delivery system should be site-specific, avoid immune cell activation, and have a controlled release upon stimulation (see Bunggulawa et al. 2018). There is a need for delivery systems that can incorporate all of these requirements to effectively treat cancer without harmful side effects. The use of exosomes as a drug delivery can incorporate all of these requirements to effectively treat cancer without harmful side effects. However, the current state of exosome processing is limited and unreliable due to scalability challenges (see Lorscheider, M. et al 2021). There is a need to develop a method of producing exosomes at high quantities which would greatly increase their potential for drug delivery.
Technology Overview
The JHU technology enhances exosome production from a cell line that causes the overexpression of the exosomal protein CD63. Unlike current exosome production methods, this technology allows for a rapid production of exosomes that can then be used for downstream processing. This transgene can be manipulated for the purposes of exosome drug delivery or other applications such as life science techniques or vaccine delivery.
Stage of Development
Pre-clinical data is available.
Publication
Tsai, S. et al. Journal of Biological Chemistry. 2022.
Published PCT application
