School of Medicine Publications and Presentations
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-2024
Abstract
Milk-derived exosomes are widely used for diagnosis, delivery, imaging, and theranostic applications. Near-Infrared (NIR) based fluorescence bioimaging is an attractive and safer technique that is used for clinical applications. However, almost all NIR imaging agents tend to have poor photostability, short half-life, nonspecific protein binding, and concentration-dependent aggregation(s). Therefore, there is an unmet clinical need to develop newer and safer modalities to package and deliver NIR imaging agents. Bovine milk exosomes are natural, biocompatible, safe, and efficient nanocarriers that facilitate the delivery of micro- and macromolecules. Herein, we developed an exosome-based NIR dye loaded nanoimaging formulation that offers improved solubility and photostability of NIR dye. Following the acetic acid based extracellular vesicle (EV) treatment method, we extracted the bovine milk exosomes from a variety of pasteurized grade milk. The EVs were screened for their physicochemical properties such as particle size and concentration and zeta potential. The stability of these exosomes was also determined under different conditions, including storage temperatures, pH, and salt concentrations. Next, indocyanine green, a model NIR dye was loaded into these exosomes (Exo-Glow) via a sonication method and further assessed for their improved fluorescence intensity and photostability using an IVIS imaging system. Initial screening suggested that size of the selected bovine milk exosomes was ∼100–135 nm with an average particle concentration of 5.8 × 102 particles/mL. Exo-Glow further demonstrated higher fluorescence intensity in cancer cells and tissues when compared to free dye. These results showed that Exo-Glow has the potential to serve as a safer NIR imaging tool for cancer cells/tissues.
Recommended Citation
Cotto, N. M., Chauhan, N., Adriano, B., Chauhan, D. S., Cabrera, M., Chauhan, S. C., & Yallapu, M. M. (2024). Milk Exosome-Glow Nanosystem for Cancer Cellular and Tissue Bioimaging. Chemical & Biomedical Imaging. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/cbmi.4c00040
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Publication Title
Chemical & Biomedical Imaging
DOI
http://doi.org/10.1021/cbmi.4c00040
Academic Level
faculty
Mentor/PI Department
Immunology and Microbiology
Comments
© 2024 The Authors. This publication is licensed under CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 .