Lung cancer is the second most common cancer in both men and women and is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States. The development of drug resistance to commonly used chemotherapeutics in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) poses significant health risks and there is a dire need to improve patient outcomes. In this study, we report the use of RNA nanotechnology to display ligand on exosome that was loaded with small interfering RNA (siRNA) for NSCLC regression in animal trials. Cholesterol was used to anchor the ligand targeting epidermal growth factor receptor on exosomes that were loaded with siRNA to silence the antiapoptotic factor survivin. The cytosolic delivery of siRNA overcame the problem of endosome trapping, leading to potent gene knockdown, chemotherapy sensitization, and tumor regression, thus achieving a favorable IC50 of 20 nmol/kg siRNA encapsulated by exosome particles in the in vivo gene knockdown assessment.
Keywords: EGFR; RNA nanotechnology; aptamer; exosomes; non-small-cell lung cancer; siRNA.