Celery (Apium graveolens L.) Exosome-like Nanovesicles as a New-Generation Chemotherapy Drug Delivery Platform against Tumor Proliferation.

Abstract

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) released from cells have shown robust efficacy in drug delivery compared with traditional synthetic carriers. Hampered by the high production cost and complex purification process, the clinical application of EVs as drug carriers is still limited. Nanoparticles isolated from plants with exosome-like morphology and similar delivery effects could be a new option for drug delivery. The celery exosome-like nanovesicles (CELNs) showed higher cellular uptake efficiency compared to the other three common plant-derived exosome-like nanovesicles, which is an essential advantage for CELNs as a drug carrier. The less toxicity and better tolerance of CELNs as biotherapeutic roles were verified in mice models. Then, doxorubicin (DOX) was encapsulated into CELNs to construct engineered CELNs (CELNs-DOX), which proved to be more efficient in treating tumors than conventional synthetic carriers like liposome both in vitro and in vivo. In conclusion, this study, for the first time, has proposed the emerging role of CELNs as a new-generation drug delivery carrier with distinct advantages.