Tumour-derived small extracellular vesicles act as a barrier to therapeutic nanoparticle delivery

Nanoparticles are promising for drug delivery applications, with several clinically approved products. However, attaining high nanoparticle accumulation in solid tumours remains challenging. Here we show that tumour cell-derived small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) block nanoparticle delivery to tumours, unveiling another barrier to nanoparticle-based tumour therapy. Tumour cells secrete large amounts of sEVs in the tumour microenvironment, which then bind to nanoparticles entering tumour tissue and traffic them to liver Kupffer cells for degradation. Knockdown of Rab27a, a gene that controls sEV secretion, decreases sEV levels and improves nanoparticle accumulation in tumour tissue. The therapeutic efficacy of messenger RNAs encoding tumour suppressing and proinflammatory proteins is greatly improved when co-encapsulated with Rab27a small interfering RNA in lipid nanoparticles. Together, our results demonstrate that tumour cell-derived sEVs act as a defence system against nanoparticle tumour delivery and that this system may be a potential target for improving nanoparticle-based tumour therapies. Cancer cell-derived small extracellular vesicles bind to therapeutic nanoparticles leading them from tumours to the liver for degradation. This mechanism is another barrier for the development of efficient nanoparticle-based cancer therapies.