A Grape Experiment!

Isn’t it weird to think that grapes could have the potential of being useful in Chemical Biology, let alone as a therapeutic agent? Not anymore! What if I told you that they go further than their consumable benefits and can in fact be used as a product to treat specific medical conditions?

When thinking about drugs and treatment, the final result is always the emphasized subject, however, what is often overlooked is the method of transportation for that drug to the bodily target. Extracellular vesicles (EV) are increasingly important in this topic, which includes the broad category of transport molecules (Doyle and Wang 2019). Within this umbrella, exosomes are a subdivision which include the smallest group of EVs. Organism-derived particles and exosomes have been explored since the existence of therapeutic agents, however, research has increased significantly throughout this realm during the past decade; including the discovery and usage of plant-derived exosome-like nanoparticles (PELNs) (Liu et al. 2025). 

As the name implies, PELNs are a type of membrane vesicles which are natural and mirror mammalian-produced exosomes. These molecules, although small, are incredibly mighty and used as one of the most important classes of transmitters between cells (Sha et al. 2024). Mammalian-derived exosomes exist, but due to their challenges, of biological complexities, low productivity and high cost, PELNs are considered the safer alternative. In additions, they tend to have other advantages, including that they are safe for humans, as they are edible or from medicinal plants; decreasing the risk of immune responses, they also retain their bioactive molecules from their sources, which can allow anti-inflammatory effects and they can serve for a wide range of therapeutics as they are natural (Liu et al. 2025). The potential biological activities and roles for drug delivery are shown below in Figure 1. 

Figure 1. Schematic of the sources for PELNs as well as their contents listed below and their potential illnesses they aid (Liu et al. 2025). 

Along with the benefits, it has been found that different sources of PELNs provide various biotherapeutic applications. An example of the variations are presented in Figure 2. 

Figure 2. Alongside Figure 1, this table lists the plant source on the left with their potential biotherapeutic applications listed respectively (Liu et al. 2025)

Alongside this research, grape exosome-like nanoparticles (GENS), have been considered a potential therapeutic agent for protecting against vascular and cardiovascular related diseases (Teng et al. 2022). Vascular calcification (VC) is a specific type of cardiovascular-releated illness that involves calcium and mineral build up in the walls of the vascular system (Wu et al. 2013). GENs contain lipids, proteins, RNA (mRNAs, miRNAs, and lncRNAs) and are capable of delivering drugs; miRNAs are microRNAs that non-coding and regulate gene expression after transcription (Teng et al. 2022). The miRNA from the GENs bind to those of mammalian miRNA which affect biological processes and can be used for manipulation with respect to varying treatments. Chronic inflammation is known to contribute to VC. Research shows that miRNA in GENs consist of those form the miR169 family, targeting the expression of inflammatory genes such as IL-6, IL-2, IL-5, and IL-1 (Teng et al. 2022). In addition, GENS were reported to be able to protect against damage created by reducing oxidative stress (ROS). Grape consumption has already been regularly projected to lower plasma ROS levels, further suggesting GENs ability to improve VC by reducing ROS. 

Aside from grapes being a tasty snack, it is certainly interesting to see how scientific technology has grown enough that simple fruits are now being considered as potential therapeutic agents. Continuing research from September 2026 now predicts that GENs can be used to suppress nasopharyngeal carcinoma, a malignant epithelial tumor (Zhang et al. 2026). It is still important to recognize that although the research is fairly recent, the current data provides a significant amount of potential that should not be overlooked; an important concept in the science world. 

Citations

Doyle, Laura, and Michael Wang. 2019. “Overview of Extracellular Vesicles, Their Origin, Composition, Purpose, and Methods for Exosome Isolation and Analysis.” Cells 8 (7): 727. https://doi.org/10.3390/cells8070727.

Liu, Di, Jingxian Gao, Xueling Wu, and Lu Han. 2025. “Plant-Derived Exosome-Like Nanoparticles as Promising Biotherapeutic Tools: Recent Advances and Challenges.” Smart Materials in Medicine, ahead of print, July 1. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smaim.2025.07.003.

Sha, Ajia, Yingyong Luo, Wenqi Xiao, et al. 2024. “Plant-Derived Exosome-Like Nanoparticles: A Comprehensive Overview of Their Composition, Biogenesis, Isolation, and Biological Applications.” International Journal of Molecular Sciences 25 (22): 12092–92. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms252212092.

Teng, Yintong, Jiaqi He, Qingping Zhong, et al. 2022. “Grape Exosome-Like Nanoparticles: A Potential Therapeutic Strategy for Vascular Calcification.” Frontiers in Pharmacology (Switzerland) 13 (October): 1025768. PubMed Central. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2022.1025768.

Wu, Meiting, Cameron Rementer, and Cecilia M. Giachelli. 2013. “Vascular Calcification: An Update on Mechanisms and Challenges in Treatment.” Calcified Tissue International 93 (4): 365–73. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00223-013-9712-z.

Zhang, Yi, Liying Zheng, Gaohan Zhu, et al. 2026. “Grape-Derived Exosome-Like Nanoparticles Suppress Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Progression by Targeting the FASN/MAPK Axis.” Cellular Signalling 145 (September): 112621. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cellsig.2026.112621.