Health-promoting Effects of Camel Milk and its Exosomes

The method used for raising camels and the type of food they feed on can affect the components of camel milk. Interestingly, all studies of camel milk exosomes were performed on camels grazing and feeding on wild plants in the desert. It is well known that desert plants can grow in harsh environments due to the presence of plenty of phytochemicals. Thus, milk obtained from camel grazing on these plants could have unique health-promoting components. However, it is also worth comparing milk contents including exosomal proteins and miRNAs between these camels and other camels raised on the farms. Another factor that may affect milk exosomal contents is the lactation period. Accordingly, colostrum-derived exosomes had higher contents of miRNAs related to immune response such as (miR-15b, miR-27b, miR-106b, miR-155, and miR-223) compared to mature cow milk (Izumi et al., 2012; Izumi et al., 2015). Similarly, camel colostrum exosomes had a more potent anticancer effect against HepaRG cells than exosomes extracted from the other lactation periods (El-Kattawy et al., 2021). Based on this previous study, camel colostrum-derived exosomes had higher levels of LF and KC mRNAs than exosomes derived from other lactation periods. This is compatible with the potent immunostimulatory potential of colostrum, particularly at young ages (Gu et al., 2012).  Moreover, the presence of LF and KC genes implies the capability of exosomes to safeguard their mRNAs from destruction by milk nucleases (Keller et al., 2011). The camel milk exosomes' capacity to take diverse paths in the microenvironment of cancerous and healthy cells was also noted. Indeed, camel milk exosomes can kill cancer cells through the elevation of intracellular ROS and inhibition of antioxidant enzymes and associated genes (NrF2 and HO-1) but they exert the opposite effect on the normal cells (Badawy et al., 2018b; El-Kattawy et al., 2021; Shaban et al., 2023). There is still much to learn about camel milk exosomes and their function in facilitating cross-talk between healthy cells and cancer cells in the tumor microenvironment.