Internalisation of RGD-extracellular vesicles in glioblastoma cells

Abstract

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common malignant type of tumour in central nervous system with one of the worst survival rates in the world. Despite available surgical and chemo/radio therapy treatments, most of the patients pass away within the first year of treatment. Poor outcome is caused by invasiveness, fast tumour recurrence and limited chemotherapy options [1,2]. Extracellular vesicles, a natural vehicle of bioactive materials, possess several essential attributes for drug delivery: ability to cross blood-brain barrier, low immunogenicity, specificity to the recipient cells and ability to be loaded with exogenous cargo [3,4]. It has been established that GBM cells have increased expression of transmembrane receptors called integrins which recognise tripeptide ArgGly-Asp (RGD) sequence [5]. Present study aims to investigate GBM internalisation efficacy of exosome-like particles modified with RGD peptide.