Application of bioactive materials primary cilia as a novel delivery vehicle

Primary cilia are hair-like structured cell organelles functioning as cellular antennae with chemosensory and mechanosensory roles. Dysfunction of cilia results in ciliopathies, including renovascular diseases (polycystic kidneys, hypertension, aneurysm), mental impedances (Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, dementia), metabolic diseases (obesity, developmental skeleton defects), blindness, and so on. With a diameter of 150 nm, cilia can be cleaved, released and circulated in the body as injury biomarkers. We here assessed the potential use of isolated cilia as a novel delivery vehicle. Cilia were isolated from renal epithelial cells, and a specific-targeting chemotherapeutic was designed on the cilia. The data show a remarkable property of cilia to significantly inhibit disease progression with reduced toxicity. These findings emphasize the prospective biomedical applications of primary cilia in generating novel drug, gene, protein, and other delivery systems to treat diverse pathological conditions. While there are many synthetic drug delivery vehicles, our studies demonstrate for the first time that physiologically produced primary cilia can be adapted as a unique carrier system.