A Review of Extracellular Vesicles in COVID‐19 Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention

Abstract

The 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) is ongoing, and has necessitated scientific efforts in disease diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. Interestingly, extracellular vesicles (EVs) have been crucial in these developments. EVs are a collection of various nanovesicles which are delimited by a lipid bilayer. They are enriched in proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, and metabolites, and naturally released from different cells. Their natural material transport properties, inherent long‐term recycling ability, excellent biocompatibility, editable targeting, and inheritance of parental cell properties make EVs one of the most promising next‐generation drug delivery nanocarriers and active biologics. During the COVID‐19 pandemic, many efforts have been made to exploit the payload of natural EVs for the treatment of COVID‐19. Furthermore, strategies that use engineered EVs to manufacture vaccines and neutralization traps have produced excellent efficacy in animal experiments and clinical trials. Here, the recent literature on the application of EVs in COVID‐19 diagnosis, treatment, damage repair, and prevention is reviewed. And the therapeutic value, application strategies, safety, and biotoxicity in the production and clinical applications of EV agents for COVID‐19 treatment, as well as inspiration for using EVs to block and eliminate novel viruses are discussed.

Extracellular Vesicles: Techniques and Biomedical Applications Related to Single Vesicle Analysis

“…The 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has been a major outbreak around the world. 207 In response to this pandemic, it is quite important to understand its pathogenesis. Sun et al applied a PBA strategy for proteomic profiling of SEVs derived from sputum of COVID-19 patients, indicating that CD81-regulated EV subsets were involved in pneumonia and immune response after SARS-CoV-2 infection.…”

“…The 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has been a major outbreak around the world . In response to this pandemic, it is quite important to understand its pathogenesis.…”

The Diagnostic, Prognostic, and Therapeutic Potential of Cell-Free DNA with a Special Focus on COVID-19 and Other Viral Infections

“…Neutrophils can release chromatin structures coated by antibacterial proteins, called NETs to prevent pathogen spreading during infectious diseases [ 161 ]. Three markers are commonly used to detect NETs in blood: cfDNA, myeloperoxidase-DNA complex (MPO-DNA), and citrullinated histone H3 (Cit-H3).…”

Cell-Specific Impacts of Surface Coating Composition on Extracellular Vesicle Secretion

“…Recently, EVs have demonstrated promising therapeutic potential due to their advantages over both their parental cells and conventional nanoparticle formulations, such as low immunogenicity, low cytotoxicity, ability to circulate in vivo for longer time periods, and the ease with which they pass through physiological barriers . Given their significant potential in preclinical models and clinical trials, such as in the treatment of lung injury, COVID-19, acute liver injury, liver cancer, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, spinal cord injury, graft-vs-host disease, osteoarthritis, and ischemic stroke, as well as applications in cardioprotection, wound healing, and musculoskeletal repair, there is growing interest in harnessing EVs for a broad range of clinical therapies.…”