Cow's Milk Particles Unlock One of Medicine's Most Challenging Puzzles

taylorvich writes:

https://newatlas.com/medical/cows-milk-particles-oral-rna-therapy/

One of the biggest challenges researchers face is making injectable medicines into versions that can be taken orally. Oral medications usually fail because they can't withstand the harsh environment of the gut, which leads to poor bioavailability - a drug's ability to be absorbed and exert a therapeutic effect on the body.

A class of drugs that can only be delivered by injection is RNA therapeutics. Using RNA-based molecules, these drugs manipulate the expression and activity of target molecules, modulating biological pathways to cure or treat a specific condition. RNA therapy allows for the treatment of diseases for which conventional drugs aren't effective.

New research by King's College London has found that biological nanoparticles in cow's milk called extracellular vesicles (EV) may be a way of administering important RNA therapies orally.

"Oral administration of drugs is the most acceptable, convenient, and usually the cheapest way to take medicines as it doesn't rely on healthcare professionals," said Driton Vllasaliu, corresponding author of the study and senior lecturer in pharmaceutics at King's College London's School of Cancer and Pharmaceutical Sciences. "The ability to deliver 'biological' drugs, such as RNA therapies, is often regarded as the 'holy grail' of drug delivery but has remained a stubborn challenge. This study is significant as it suggests oral delivery of RNA drugs using technology based on milk EVs may be possible."

We've got EVs; they play a crucial role in cell-cell communication. Most of our cells use EVs - think of them like cellular envelopes - to transport cargo such as proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids, including RNA, across long distances to target cells. They're surrounded by a protective lipid layer and, importantly, can cross biological barriers.

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