# Exploiting an endogenous transcytotic pathway for oral drug delivery

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER · 2021 · $472,274

## Abstract

Project Summary
The work described in this proposal investigates the potential of exosomes harvested
from cow's milk to be used as oral delivery vehicles for drugs that currently require
infusion therapy. Our central hypothesis is that milk exosomes utilize the FcRn receptor
that is constitutively expressed throughout life in humans. In addition, previous studies
have documented that bovine IgG cross-reacts with human FcRn, and clinical trials have
documented the presence of bovine miRNAs in the blood of patients who consumed
milk. Although the FcRn receptor has been shown to facilitate the uptake of Fc-targeted
nanoparticles across the gastrointestinal epithelium, the ability of exosomes to exploit this
pathway has yet to be considered or investigated. Our preliminary data suggest that the
oral bioavailability of exosome cargo exceeds 10%, and that uptake is greatly reduced if
free bovine IgG is co-administered with milk exosomes; consistent with FcRn-mediated
absorption. Previous studies have suggested that exosomes are transcytosed across the
gastrointestinal epithelium as intact particles, and our results demonstrate that orally-
administered, iRGD-targeted exosomes significantly enhance tumor delivery. In addition
to the practical application of reducing the need for infusion therapy, the proposed
experiments explore the mechanism by which transcytosis across the gastrointestinal
epithelium is accomplished, and strives to identify unknown factors that have been
proposed to contribute to this process.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10148779
- **Project number:** 5R01GM129046-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER
- **Principal Investigator:** THOMAS ANCHORDOQUY
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $472,274
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-08-01 → 2023-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10148779

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10148779, Exploiting an endogenous transcytotic pathway for oral drug delivery (5R01GM129046-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10148779. Licensed CC0.

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