The Use of Vesicles from Cow Milk for Oral Drug Delivery
Tom Anchordoquy, Professor, University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Many pharmaceuticals must be administered intravenously due to their
poor oral bioavailability. In addition to issues associated with
sterility and inconvenience, the cost of repeated infusion over a
six-week course of therapy costs the healthcare system tens of billions
of dollars per year. Attempts to improve oral bioavailability have
traditionally focused on enhancing drug solubility and membrane
permeability, and the use of synthetic nanoparticles has also been
investigated. As an alternative strategy, some reports have clearly
demonstrated that exosomes from cow milk are absorbed from the
gastrointestinal tract in humans, and could potentially be used for oral
delivery of drugs that are traditionally administered intravenously.
Our results demonstrate that milk exosomes are absorbed from the gut as
intact particles that can be modified with ligands to promote retention
in target tissues.
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