Construction and evaluation of liraglutide delivery system based on milk exosomes: a new idea for oral peptide delivery
Background: Increasing the bioavailability of peptide or protein drugs has always been an essential topic in pharmacy. Milk exosomes as a carrier for oral drug delivery systems have begun to attract attention in recent years. The application of oral milk exosomes carriers to peptide drugs such as liraglutide is worth trying. Objective: Milk-derived exosomes are used in this study to encapsulate the GLP-1 receptor agonist liraglutide. It also explored the feasibility of using this drug delivery system for oral biomolecules delivery in the future. Methods: The size and morphology of milk exosomes were characterized. The gastrointestinal stability of milk exosomes was evaluated in a dialysis bag. The cellular uptake of milk exosomes in an intestinal cell was observed. Six drug loading methods have been evaluated and compared preliminarily, and they are the incubation method, sonication method, extrusion method, freeze-thaw cycles method, saponin-assisted method, and electroporation method. Results: As demonstrated in this study, milk exosomes showed significant stability in the gastrointestinal environment and excellent affinity with intestinal cells, indicating their unique benefits used for oral drug delivery. Effective drug loading method for exosomes is challenging. Among the six drug loading methods used in this study, the liraglutide-Exo prepared by the extrusion method obtained the most significant drug load, which was 2.45 times the direct incubation method. The liraglutide-Exo obtained by the freeze-thaw cycles method has the slightest morphological change. Conclusion: The study showed milk exosome-based oral drug delivery systems are promising.