Chinese scientists successfully set up a "direct attack" channel to fight cancer cells

First author

First author

Chinese scientists successfully set up a "direct attack" channel to fight cancer cells

If the cell is likened to a factory for the production of biomolecules, then exosomes are the carriers that carry these molecules.
They can directly enter the interior of the recipient cell, release the carried substances, and then affect the recipient cell
.

In recent years, exosomes have been used to explore drug delivery vehicles for the treatment of human diseases, and they have shown great application potential in the field of drug research and development

Not long ago, Yang Hui, a researcher at the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, led the team to develop a nanofluidic chip technology that realized the high-throughput preparation of exosomal drug carriers, and verified the new exosomal drug carriers through experiments.
The anti-tumor effect
.

The result was published in the international academic journal "Small" on September 2 as a cover article

According to Yang Hui, the diameter of exosomes is about 30-200 nanometers.
As a natural carrier of intercellular material, they can be secreted into the extracellular space or body fluids, through the transfer and delivery of biomolecules, to achieve cell-to-cell communication
.

Yang Hui said that there are some traditional methods for loading exosomes into exosomes, such as electroporation, but this method has the disadvantages of low loading efficiency and easy damage to the integrity and functionality of exosomes.
This makes exosomes face major challenges in biomedicine applications
.

Yang Hui’s team proposed a high-throughput chip called "Exosomal Nanoperforator", which can load a variety of exosomes into exosomes and obtain a large number of undamaged exosomes samples filled with drugs.

.

Hao Rui, the first author of this paper and a doctoral student at the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that the "exosomal nanoperforator" can achieve highly controllable preparation conditions for exosomal drug carriers with the help of nanofluid chip technology
.

According to him, the research team has fabricated nano-scale channels with precise structures and realized the parallel work of 30,000 modules, which can greatly improve work efficiency
.

With the help of nanochannels, the research team performed mechanical squeezing and fluid shearing of exosomes to create nanopores on the surface of exosomes membranes that temporarily existed but did not damage the structure of the biomembrane, which promoted the entry of exogenous substance molecules from the surrounding solution into the exosomes.

In order to further verify the effectiveness of the "exosomal nanoperforator", the research team selected doxorubicin as the verification object
.

As a class of antibiotics, doxorubicin is often used as a treatment for various types of cancers such as glioma, malignant lymphoma, breast cancer and lung cancer

In the end, the research team confirmed that the "exosomal nanoperforator" can efficiently load it into exosomes, and drug-loaded exosomes can transport doxorubicin to lung cancer cells and tumor spheres, and induce cancer cell death And inhibit the growth of tumor balls
.

"The research results show that the nanofluidic chip we developed ensures the activity of drug-containing exosomes, and at the same time sets up a'direct channel' against cancer cells, tumor cells, etc.
, and releases them without generating an immune response.
Containing drugs, this is an important prerequisite for the clinical application of exosomal drugs
.

" Yang Hui said

At present, the research team is working hard to standardize the production of this nanofluidic system
.

Yang Hui introduced that in the future, based on nanofluidic chip technology, a new strategy for drug-loading exosomes is expected to develop into a platform-based tool to load different exogenous substances with biological significance and clinical therapeutic effects into exosomes.

China Youth Daily · China Youth Daily reporter Qiu Chenhui Source: China Youth Daily