# Exosomes in Cancer Therapy

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF TX MD ANDERSON CAN CTR · 2020 · $458,041

## Abstract

Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has a dismal prognosis with a median survival of about 6 months
for patients with metastatic disease despite the use of current treatments. Therefore, PDAC is in urgent need
of effective therapies. About 80% of PDAC patients exhibit mutation in KRAS, with substitution of a glycine
residue at codon 12, such as KRASG12D, observed in high frequency. Many studies in mice unequivocally show
that direct inhibition oncogenic KRAS significantly suppresses tumor progression. Despite such compelling
evidence for the functional role of oncogenic KRAS in the PDAC pathogenesis, direct targeting of oncogenic
KRAS has been elusive and it has often been dubbed as ‘undruggable’. In this grant application, we propose to
explore a novel approach to target oncogenic KRAS using physiological nanoparticles known as exosomes.
Exosomes are 40-150 nm extracellular vesicles (EVs) that contain DNA, RNA and proteins, and can deliver
their contents efficiently into cells they fuse with and/or enter. Exploiting this unique feature of exosomes, our
research team proposes in this grant application to test the central hypothesis that ‘exosomes can be
engineered to deliver RNA interference (RNAi) molecules to target KRASG12D in pancreatic cancer’.
Successful completion of the proposed studies will determine whether exosomes exhibit a superior ability to
deliver RNAi molecules for the treatment of pancreatic cancer when compared to liposomes. Additionally, after
such increased ability is investigated using multiple experimental systems, the proposal will further identify
mechanism/s associated with the enhanced efficacy of exosomes in the delivery of RNAi molecules.
Collectively, the proposal is designed to enable in-depth pre-clinical studies coupled with an investigation into
the unique mechanism of action of exosomes to potentially facilitate future therapeutic testing in patients with
PDAC.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9827487
- **Project number:** 5R01CA213233-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF TX MD ANDERSON CAN CTR
- **Principal Investigator:** RAGHU KALLURI
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $458,041
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2016-12-27 → 2021-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9827487

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9827487, Exosomes in Cancer Therapy (5R01CA213233-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9827487. Licensed CC0.

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