Abstract

Extracellular vesicle (EV) delivery of TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) (EV-T) has been shown to be highly efficient for cancer treatment when combined with the potent cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) inhibitor dinaciclib (SCH727965, Dina). However, only topical administration was previously tested for cancer treatment, leaving unknown the efficacy of systemic therapy by EV-T and Dina. In this study we hypothesize that the systemic application of EV-T and Dina can be performed through EV-mediated co-delivery of TRAIL and Dina. Dina was first post-loaded into EV-Ts by sonication to prepare EV-mediated co-delivery of TRAIL and Dina, designated Dina@EV-T. Then Dina@EV-Ts were shown to be stable, readily endocytosed into cancer cells, and highly effective at inducing intensive apoptosis in resistant cancer lines but not in normal cells. Moreover, systemically infused Dina@EV-Ts showed evident tumor tropism suggesting their good potential for tumour-targeted delivery of therapeutics. Importantly, the systemic therapy with Dina@EV-Ts showed the best efficacy in vivo when compared with other treatments. The augmented therapeutic efficacy appeared to be associated with the concomitant suppression of prosurvival CDK1 and anti-apoptotic proteins including CDK9, cFLIP, MCL-1, BCL-2 and Survivin by Dina@EV-T treatment. Additionally, there were no adverse side effects observed for the systemic Dina@EV-T therapy. In conclusion, our data suggest that the co-delivery of TRAIL and Dina by EVs potentially constitutes a novel tumour-targeted therapy, which is highly effective and safe for the treatment of refractory tumors.