Facile and scalable fabrication of exosome-mimicking nanovesicles through PEGylated lipid detergent-aided cell extrusion

We report a scalable fabrication method to generate exosome-mimicking nanovesicles (ENVs) by using a biocompatible, cell-binding lipid detergent during cell extrusion. A PEGylated mannosylerythritol lipid (MELPEG) detergent was rationally engineered to strongly associate with phospholipid membranes to increase cell membrane deformability and the corresponding friction force during extrusion and to enhance the dispersibility of ENVs. Compared to cell extrusion without detergent, cell extrusion in the presence of MELPEG increased the ENV production yield by approximately 20 times and cellular protein content per MELPEG-functionalized ENV by approximately 2-fold relative to that of unmodified ENVs. We verified that MELPEG strongly binds to ENV membranes and increases membrane deformability via expansion/swelling while preserving the integrity of the phospholipid bilayer structure. The results highlight that the MELPEG-aided cell extrusion process broadly applies to various cell lines; hence, it could be helpful in the production of ENVs for tissue regeneration, drug delivery, and cancer nanomedicine.