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
  • 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.
Products