A versatile engineered extracellular vesicle platform simultaneously targeting and eliminating senescent stromal cells and tumor cells to promote tumor regression

Abstract Chemotherapy is an important therapeutic approach for malignant tumors for it triggers apoptosis of cancer cells. However, chemotherapy also induces senescence of stromal cells in the tumor microenvironment to promote tumor progression. Strategies aimed at killing tumor cells while simultaneously eliminating senescent stromal cells represent an effective approach to cancer treatment. Here, we developed an engineered Src-siRNA delivery system based on small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) to simultaneously eliminate senescent stromal cells and tumor cells for cancer therapy. The DSPE-PEG-modified urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) peptide was anchored to the membranes of induced mesenchymal stem cell-derived sEVs (uPA-sEVs), and Src siRNA was loaded into the uPA-sEVs by electroporation (uPA-sEVs-siSrc). The engineered uPA-sEVs-siSrc retained the basic sEVs properties and protected against siSrc degradation. uPA peptide modification enhanced the sEVs with the ability to simultaneously target doxorubicin-induced senescent stromal cells and tumor cells. Src silencing by uPA-sEVs-siSrc induced apoptosis of both senescent stromal cells and tumor cells. The uPA-sEVs-siSrc displayed preferential tumor accumulation and effectively inhibited tumor growth in a tumor xenograft model. Furthermore, uPA-sEVs-siSrc in combination with doxorubicin significantly reduced the senescence burden and enhanced the therapeutic efficacy of chemotherapy. Taken together, uPA-sEVs-siSrc may serve as a promising therapy to kill two birds with one stone, not only killing tumor cells to achieve remarkable antitumor effect, but also eliminating senescent cells to enhance the efficacy of chemotherapeutic agent in tumor regression. Graphical Abstract