2. Academic Validation
  3. Orally engineered liver-targeted garlic exosome-like nanovesicles for astaxanthin precise delivery against alcoholic liver disease in mice

Orally engineered liver-targeted garlic exosome-like nanovesicles for astaxanthin precise delivery against alcoholic liver disease in mice

  • Food Res Int. 2026 Jun 1;233(Pt 2):119022. doi: 10.1016/j.foodres.2026.119022.
Qinglin Qu 1,  Fan Liu 1,  Huajing Gao 1,  Xiangrui Kong 1,  Xue Gao 1,  Yukun Song 2,  Mingqian Tan 2,  Yannan Chen 3,  Dapeng Li 4,  Xintong Tan 5
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 College of Food Science and Engineering, Shandong Agricultural University, Shandong Engineering Research Center of Food Nutrition and Active Health, Taian 271018, China.
  • 2 State Key Laboratory of Marine Food Processing and Safety Control, Dalian Polytechnic University, Dalian 116034, Liaoning, China; Academy of Food Interdisciplinary Science, School of Food Science and Technology, Dalian Polytechnic University, Dalian 116034, Liaoning, China; Dalian Key Laboratory for Precision Nutrition, Dalian Polytechnic University, Dalian 116034, Liaoning, China.
  • 3 College of Food Science and Engineering, Shandong Agricultural University, Shandong Engineering Research Center of Food Nutrition and Active Health, Taian 271018, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
  • 4 College of Food Science and Engineering, Shandong Agricultural University, Shandong Engineering Research Center of Food Nutrition and Active Health, Taian 271018, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
  • 5 College of Food Science and Engineering, Shandong Agricultural University, Shandong Engineering Research Center of Food Nutrition and Active Health, Taian 271018, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
PMID: 41956676 DOI: 10.1016/j.foodres.2026.119022
Abstract

Orally targeted strategy of nutrients has attracted obvious attention for reducing side effects and enhancing the intervention efficiency of alcoholic liver disease (ALD). Herein, novel lactobionic acid-modified garlic exosome-like nanovesicles (LA-GELN) were designed to precise delivery astaxanthin (AXT) against alcohol-induced lipid metabolism disorders. The targeted modification of nanovesicles enhanced the encapsulation efficiency of AXT (80.03%). Meanwhile, the encapsulation strategy also improved the solubility and gastrointestinal stability of AXT. In the HepG2 cell model, LA-GELN-AXT demonstrated excellent cellular uptake capacity (Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.87) and effectively alleviated oxidative stress and lipid droplet formation. In vivo studies also demonstrated that 8 h after oral administration, the hepatic fluorescence intensity in the LA-GELN and GELN groups was 1.98-fold and 1.26-fold that of the Nile red group, respectively. In the ALD mouse model, LA-GELN-AXT effectively mitigated oxidative damage, reduced inflammatory cytokine levels, restored mitochondrial function, and further alleviated lipid accumulation. Its mechanism of action was associated with the modulation of the TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB inflammatory signaling pathway and the subsequent alleviation of ALD-induced hepatic metabolic disorders.

Keywords

Alcoholic liver disease; Astaxanthin; Garlic exosome-like nanovesicles; Liver targeting; Metabolic disorder.

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