Extracellular Vesicles: Engineering New Therapeutic Delivery Modalities

Extracellular Vesicles (EVs), particularly exosomes, are gaining traction as natural, nanoscale platforms for delivering therapeutic cargo like nucleic acids, proteins, and small molecules. However, precisely engineering EVs has proven difficult. These complex techniques have also been largely out of reach for many researchers due to their technical hurdles. This discussion will delve into materials and methods for expressing biomolecules directly on EVs.

The development of protein scaffolds offers a clinically validated approach to effectively load therapeutic proteins onto the surface or inside EVs. Additionally, chemical linkers have been designed to attach nucleic acids or small molecules to the EV membrane, ensuring the bioactivity and potency of the cargo remains intact. Case studies and clinical data will be presented to illustrate the effectiveness of each EV loading and linking technology.

To promote broader access, the technologies described here will be made available to research institutions, pharmaceutical companies, and biotechnology firms under a research license. Additionally, these technologies will be available to therapeutics companies through contract development and manufacturing services, allowing them to produce their own engineered EVs.