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Oral delivery of therapeutic peptides by milk-derived extracellular vesicles

The oral delivery of difficult-to-drug molecules, such as peptides, can be achieved using milk-derived extracellular vesicles. The Tiny Cargo Company has established a workflow for the large-scale production of extracellular vesicles from milk for the development of XoLacta — an oral therapy that mitigates the side effects of radiation therapy.

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Fig. 1: Tiny Cargo’s path to industrial production of freeze-dried small extracellular vesicles in kilogram quantities.

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Acknowledgements

Research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) 1R35HL161237-01 and the Redgate Foundation to R.G.G.; by Virginia Catalyst grant 1403 to R.G.G. and S.R.M.; and National Science Foundation (NSF) 2203330 to S.R.M. We wish to express our gratitude to R. Letteri, M. Bannon, D. Montgomery and R. Archer.

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Correspondence to Spencer R. Marsh or Robert G. Gourdie.

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S.R.M. and R.G.G. are company officers and shareholders of The Tiny Cargo Company.

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FDA Animal Rule: https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/search-fda-guidance-documents/product-development-under-animal-rule

Tiny Cargo: https://www.tinycargo.com/

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Marsh, S.R., Gourdie, R.G. Oral delivery of therapeutic peptides by milk-derived extracellular vesicles. Nat Rev Bioeng (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44222-024-00227-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44222-024-00227-9

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