Tumor Exosomes Reprogrammed by Low pH Are Efficient Targeting Vehicles for Smart Drug Delivery and Personalized Therapy against their Homologous Tumor

As membrane-bound extracellular vesicles, exosomes have targeting ability for specific cell types, and the cellular environment strongly impacts their content and uptake efficiency. Inspired by these natural properties, the impacts of various cellular stress conditions on the uptake efficiency of tumor iterated exosomes are evaluated, and low-pH treatment caused increased uptake efficiency and retained cell-type specificity is found. Lipidomics analyses and molecular dynamics simulations reveal a glycerolipid self-aggregation-based mechanism for the enhanced homologous uptake. Furthermore, these low-pH reprogrammed exosomes are developed into a smart drug delivery platform, which is capable of specifically targeting tumor cells and selectively releasing diverse chemodrugs in response to the exosome rupture by the near-infrared irradiance-triggered burst of reactive oxygen species. This platform exerts safe and enhanced antitumor effects demonstrated by multiple model mice experiments. These results open a new avenue to reprogram exosomes for smart drug delivery and potentially personalized therapy against their homologous tumor.

Automated summary

Research shows that under low-pH conditions, the uptake efficiency of tumor exosomes increases while retaining cell specificity. A glycerolipid self-aggregation-based mechanism is revealed through lipidomics analysis and molecular simulations to enhance homologous uptake. By using near-infrared irradiation to induce exosome rupture and release chemodrugs, a smart drug delivery platform is developed for enhanced antitumor effects.