Goji berry particles disguised as cells restore fertility in mice
Mu Y, Zhang X, Ye K, Liao Q, Yang W
Medicinal Plants
The goji berries sold dried in health food aisles or grown on a backyard trellis are turning out to contain tiny particles that scientists can hijack as delivery vehicles for human medicine, a reminder that ordinary garden plants carry biochemical machinery far beyond their fruit.
Researchers took tiny bubbles naturally made by goji berry plants and dressed them up in disguise: a coating from ovarian cells to help them find their target, and a small chemical tag to help them get inside cell powerhouses called mitochondria. In mice whose ovaries were damaged by chemotherapy, these disguised plant bubbles traveled straight to the ovaries, fixed the broken cell powerhouses, and restored normal egg development and fertility.
Key Findings
Goji berry (Lycium barbarum) extracellular vesicles were hybridized with granulosa cell membranes and conjugated with triphenylphosphonium (TPP) to achieve dual ovarian and mitochondrial targeting
The engineered vesicles entered cells mainly via caveolae- and lipid-raft-dependent endocytosis, restoring mitochondrial structure and bioenergetic function in granulosa cells
In a chemotherapy-induced ovarian insufficiency mouse model, treatment rescued follicular development, ovarian hormone function, oocyte quality, and natural fertility
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists engineered vesicles from goji berry plants, disguised them with ovarian cell membranes, and tagged them with a mitochondria-seeking molecule to repair fertility-damaging cell damage in mice with chemotherapy-induced ovarian failure.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Bioinspired plant-derived extracellular vesicles enabling dual-targeting therapy for primary ovarian insufficiency.
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have emerged as promising therapeutic agents for restoring ovarian function and fertility in chemotherapy-induced premature ovarian insufficiency (POI). However, their ...
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
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Goji, goji berry, or wolfberry, is the fruit of either Lycium barbarum or Lycium chinense, two closely related species of boxthorn in the nightshade family, Solanaceae. The two species are similar, but can be distinguished by differences in taste and sugar content.