Loading of extracellular vesicles with hydrophobically modified siRNAs

Abstract

Delivery represents a significant barrier to the clinical advancement of oligonucleotide therapeutics. Small, endogenous extracellular vesicles (EVs) have the potential to act as oligonucleotide delivery vehicles, but robust and scalable methods for loading RNA therapeutic cargo into vesicles are lacking. Here we describe the efficient loading of hydrophobically modified siRNAs (hsiRNAs) into EVs upon co-incubation, without altering vesicle size distribution or integrity. This method is expected to advance the development of EV-based therapies for the treatment of a broad range of disorders.