Biocompatible exosomes nanodrug cargo for cancer cell bioimaging and drug delivery

Abstract Therapy against cancer remains a daunting issue for human health, despite remarkable innovations in many areas of pathology. In situ biosynthesized nanoclusters bestow a novel remedy for carcinogenic cell imaging. Exosomes have received special attention as an efficient tool for the diagnosis of various diseases, including cancers. All types of cells (healthy or diseased) generate exosomes, making them significantly unique for relevant disease diagnosis and treatment. In this contribution, we exploit the possibility of utilizing the exosomes to facilitate chemotherapeutics, viz. the combination of doxorubicin (Dox) and biosynthesized silver nanoclusters in cancer cells. Our study showed a new facile way for bioimaging of cancer cells using biosynthesized silver-DNA nanoclusters, and thus further targeting cancer cells using the relevant cancer exosomes as drug delivery cargo. After isolating exosomes from neoplastic cells, i.e. HeLa, loaded with the drug, and treating other neoplastic cells with cargo-loaded isolated exosomes, we found that cargo-loaded isolated exosomes can readily enter into the targeted cancer cells and efficiently kill these neoplastic cells. This raises the possibility of acting as a novel facile modality for target cancer theranostics with high efficiency and biocompability.