The AAPS PharmSciTech review article Bacteriosomes as a Promising Tool in Biomedical Applications: Immunotherapy and Drug Delivery, by Gamaleldin I. Harisa and colleagues at the King Saud University in Saudi Arabia, describes why and how bacteriosomes have significant potential in drug delivery. Bacteriosomes are inactivated vesicles derived from a virus, bacterial cells, or animal cells and show significant promise in diagnostics, therapies, and drug delivery. The unique nature of bacteriosomes, including availability, high in vivo stability, the ability to overcome biological barriers, and prolonged systemic circulation, make them a promising vehicle to transport therapeutic agents.
Researchers discovered that salmonella could penetrate a cancerous tumor and inhibit its growth, but it could not eliminate the cancer and it displayed high risk such as septic shock. This understanding led researchers to decrease the immunogenicity of bacteria through inactivation, leading to the use of inactivated bacteria as drug delivery mechanism.
Bacteriosomes may be especially effective in vaccinations, as they enhance immune response. They could also “achieve a synergistic effect during their usage as a carrier to deliver loaded cargo to cancerous cells.”
Bacteriosomes can be fabricated in macro and nano sizes. Macro-sized bacteriosomes, also known as bacterial ghosts, can be created using the “gene E-mediated lysis (genetic method; which promotes lysis of specific portions of cell walls) or by chemical agents (chemical method; which induce a hole in the cell wall).” Nano-sized bacteriosomes, also known as bacterial vesicles, “could be obtained from extrusion of [bacterial ghosts] [through] membrane with pore size 100 nm.”
Although bacteriosomes are inactivated, they still retain the surface structure and antigenic components as their living counterparts. Thus, bacteriosomes can adhere to cells and tissues throughout the body.
Read the full article in AAPS PharmSciTech to learn more about the potential uses of bacteriosomes as biological drug carriers, how to fabricate bacteriosomes, and the challenges in application of bacteriosomes.
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