Inhalable dry powder mRNA vaccines based on extracellular vesicles

Respiratory diseases are a global burden, with millions of deaths attributed to pulmonary illnesses and dysfunctions. Therapeutics have been developed, but they present major limitations regarding pulmonary bioavailability and product stability. To circumvent such limitations, we developed room-temperature-stable inhalable lung -derived extracellular vesicles or exosomes (Lung-Exos) as mRNA and protein drug carriers. Compared with standard synthetic nano -particle liposomes (Lipos), Lung-Exos exhibited superior distribu-tion to the bronchioles and parenchyma and are deliverable to the lungs of rodents and nonhuman primates (NHPs) by dry powder inhalation. In a vaccine application, severe acute respiratory corona -virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike (S) protein encoding mRNA-loaded Lung-Exos (S-Exos) elicited greater immunoglobulin G (IgG) and secretory IgA (SIgA) responses than its loaded liposome (S-Lipo) counterpart. Importantly, S-Exos remained functional at room-temperature stor-age for one month. Our results suggest that extracellular vesicles can serve as an inhaled mRNA drug-delivery system that is superior to synthetic liposomes.

Automated summary

Respiratory diseases are a major global burden, and the development of effective therapeutics is limited. Researchers have developed a stable inhalable form of extracellular vesicles that can effectively deliver drugs to the lungs and have shown promising results in vaccine applications.