Cow's milk particles can help solve one of the most challenging medical puzzles

One of the biggest challenges for researchers is making edible versions of injectable drugs. Oral medications are usually ineffective because they cannot tolerate the harsh environment of the gut. Now researchers have found that nanoparticles in cow's milk can be used for oral delivery of RNA-based drugs. These drugs are only available by injection, and this discovery opens the window to cheaper and more versatile drugs.

RNA drugs use RNA-based molecules to manipulate the expression and activity of target molecules. In this way, biological pathways are changed in such a way that the disease is cured. RNA therapy can be useful for diseases that are not affected by conventional drugs.

Nanoparticles in cow's milk, called extracellular vesicles (EVs), could be a new way to deliver important RNA drugs orally, new research at King's College London has found.

Oral medications are usually the most accessible, convenient, and inexpensive way to take medication because they do not require a health professional to administer. Doctors consider edible biologics to be the “holy grail” of the pharmaceutical industry, but overcoming this challenge has not been an easy task.

The role of cow's milk particles in drug delivery

Extracellular vesicles play an important role in the communication between cells. Many of our cells use extracellular vesicles to deliver cargo such as proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids, including RNA, over long distances to target cells. These vesicles have a protective layer of lipids and can cross the body's biological barriers.

For this reason, researchers investigated whether the extracellular vesicles in cow's milk could be used as a tool to transport drugs to the digestive tract.

Using realistic organoid models of the human intestine, they confirmed that cow's milk vesicle particles pass through the intestinal wall.

The researchers then filled the milk vesicle particles with anti-tumor necrosis factor alpha (anti-TNF-a) RNA and fed a dose of it to a mouse prone to inflammatory bowel disease. TNF-a facilitates the process of intestinal inflammation and is one of the main factors in the development of inflammatory bowel disease. This drug was able to reduce the length of the site of inflammation in the large intestine of mice compared to mice in the control group (which did not receive the drug).

Significant improvement in the appearance of the large intestine of mice in the treatment group showed that cow's milk extracellular vesicle particles successfully transferred their RNA cargo and reduced inflammation and repair of the intestinal wall.

Although this trial only examined the effect of RNA-filled extracellular vesicles in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease, the researchers say the method could be used to treat a wide range of diseases; including heart disease and diabetes.