Antibody Generation Using Cancer‐Derived Small Extracellular Vesicles (sEVs): A Platform for Targeted Cancer Therapy and Potential Personalized Applications
Despite advances in tumor-targeting therapies, drug delivery efficiency to solid tumors remains low in most preclinical studies, highlighting the need for more effective targeting ligands. A novel method is developed to generate tumor-targeting monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) using cancer-derived small extracellular vesicles (sEVs), which inherit the structural and functional features of their parent cells. sEVs isolated from human ovarian carcinoma cell lines (OVCAR-8) are injected into mice to elicit an immune response. Hybridoma technology is used to generate mAbs, which are screened for either high specificity or cytotoxicity toward OVCAR-8 cells. Two lead mAbs are individually decorated onto paclitaxel-loaded CD8⁺ T cell-derived sEVs (antibody-functionalized TSEV/P; AB-TSEV/P), and the resulting formulations are evaluated in OVCAR-8 tumor-bearing mice. Both AB-TSEV/P formulations significantly reduce tumor growth without affecting body weight. Biodistribution studies using IR780-loaded AB-TSEV reveal enhanced tumor accumulation compared to non-targeted controls. RNA sequencing and spatial transcriptomics show that antibody-decorated sEVs induce transcriptional changes associated with immune activation and tumor suppression. This antibody generation strategy enables cancer cell-specific targeting and supports its application in targeted cancer therapy and personalized oncology.
Authors
- Woncheol Jung
- Tae Gyu Oh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2756-3546)
- Je‐Hyun Yoon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7615-8654)
- Hassan Abushukair (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0068-5201)
- Xiaoyu Ren (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5409-6672)
- Yang Yang‐Hartwich (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0522-9053)
- Dongin Kim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2078-6138)
- Changsun Kang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4541-0057)
- Rajagopal Ramesh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7658-5338)
- Maryam Firouzi
- Tobias M.P. Hartwich (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2854-2894)
Institutions
- Yale University (US)
- Oklahoma State University Oklahoma City (US)
- University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Small
- Published
- 2025-11-28
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202506918
- Primary Topic
- Extracellular vesicles in disease
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00