Extracellular vesicles (EVs) play major roles in intracellular communication and participate in several biological functions in both normal and pathological conditions. Surface modification of EVs via various ligands, such as proteins, peptides, or aptamers, offers great potential as a means to achieve targeted delivery of therapeutic cargo, i.e., in drug delivery systems (DDS). This review summarizes recent studies pertaining to the development of EV-based DDS and its advantages compared to conventional nano drug delivery systems (NDDS). First, we compare liposomes and exosomes in terms of their distinct benefits in DDS. Second, we analyze what to consider for achieving better isolation, yield, and characterization of EVs for DDS. Third, we summarize different methods for the modification of surface of EVs, followed by discussion about different origins of EVs and their role in developing DDS. Next, several major methods for encapsulating therapeutic cargos in EVs have been summarized. Finally, we discuss key challenges and pose important open questions which warrant further investigation to develop more effective EV-based DDS.

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Background: Artificial intelligence (AI) is the way to model the human intelligence to accomplish certain task without much intervention of human being. The term AI was first used in 1956 with The Logic Theorist program, which was designed to simulate problem solving ability of human beings. There has been a significant amount of research using AI in order to determine advantages and disadvantages of the applicability and, the future perspectives that impact on different areas of society. Even the remarkable impact of AI can be transferred to the field of healthcare with its use in pharmaceutical and biomedical studies crucial for the socioeconomic development of the population in general within different studies we can highlight those that have been conducted with the objective of facing diseases, such as cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, among others. In parallel, the long process of drug development also requires the application of AI to accelerate research in medical care. Methods: This review is based on research material obtained from PubMed up to Jan 2020. The search terms include ―artificial intelligence‖, ―machine learning‖ in context of the research in pharmaceutical and biomedical applications. Results: This study aimed to highlight the importance of AI in biomedical research also recent studies support the use of AI to generate tools using patient data to improve outcomes. Other studies have demonstrated the use of AI to create prediction models to determine response to cancer treatment. Conclusion: The application of AI in the field of pharmaceutical and biomedical studies have been extensively utilized, including cancer research, for diagnosis as well as prognosis of disease state. It has become a tool for researchers in the management of complex data obtaining complementary results to conventional statistical analyses. AI increase the precision in estimation of treatment effect in cancer patients and determine prediction outcomes.

Peptides are strings of approximately 2–50 amino acids, which have gained huge attention for theranostic applications in cancer research due to their various advantages including better biosafety, customizability, convenient process of synthesis, targeting ability via recognizing biological receptors on cancer cells, and better ability to penetrate cell membranes. The conjugation of peptides to the various nano delivery systems (NDS) has been found to provide an added benefit toward targeted delivery for cancer therapy. Moreover, the simultaneous delivery of peptide-conjugated NDS and nano probes has shown potential for the diagnosis of the malignant progression of cancer. In this review, various barriers hindering the targeting capacity of NDS are addressed, and various approaches for conjugating peptides and NDS have been discussed. Moreover, major peptide-based functionalized NDS targeting cancer-specific receptors have been considered, including the conjugation of peptides with extracellular vesicles, which are biological nanovesicles with promising ability for therapy and the diagnosis of cancer.

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