Exosomes Harnessed as Nanocarriers for Cancer Therapy - Current Status and Potential for Future Clinical Applications

Abstract

: Exosomes are nano structured (50-90 nm) vesicles that originate from endosomal compartment of eukaryotic cells and are secreted into extracellular matrix. In recent years there has been increased interest in exploring exosomes for diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Like many other diseases e.g. neurodegenerative disorders, autoimmune diseases exosomes have large significance in cancer too. Exosomes are known to prevail in large numbers and carry unique cargos in different types of cancers and thus are proving as versatile entities in understanding their biology of cancers and utilized as efficient diagnostic biomarkers in identification of cancer type. In addition to diagnostic applications there has been an increased interest in recent years to exploit exosomes as carriers for delivery of therapeutic agents to target sites as well. This is indebted to their exceptional non-immunogenic and biomimetic properties that prompted researchers to use exosomes as carriers for delivery of therapeutic agents e.g. drugs, genes and peptides. Exosomes also circumvent many drawbacks associated with other lipid or polymeric nanocarriers e.g. low circulation time, lipid toxicities, long term stability etc. However, in spite of many favorable aspects for exosome based therapy there have been a number of challenges too. This review will focus on the current status of the exosome based drug therapy for cancer, the challenges faced and its potential for future clinical use.

Extracellular vesicles (exosomes and ectosomes) play key roles in the pathology of brain diseases

“…Moreover, additional brain diseases are due to genetic defects such as those of miRNAs [131]. In all these [130][131][132][133] and other additional diseases, EVs play key roles analogous to those described in the present review. For most brain diseases, functional mechanisms are known.…”

“…Moreover, their detection in biological fluids potentially offers multicomponent diagnostic readouts. Moreover, the efficient exchange of cellular components can support applied use by EV-based therapeutics [133,134]. Perspectives, promising especially for clinical developments, would be nice for all AD patients, or at least for the early fraction for which results appear to delay the development and may also induce the preventions of diseases.…”

Understanding the Protective Role of Exosomes in Doxorubicin-Induced Cardiotoxicity

“…The strategies of EXOs to alleviate DIC can be summarized into two major aspects: first, EXOs as nonimmunogenic nanosized vesicles (EXOs-DOX) improve the delivery efficiency of DOX and the uptake capacity of tumor cells to DOX, enhancing the anticancer effect of DOX, thereby reducing the dosage of DOX, indirectly reducing DIC; second, some contents in EXOs can directly act on the heart, inhibit cardiac damage caused by DOX, and directly treat DIC [ 10 ]. There are many studies on EXOs enhancing DOX's anticancer efficacy [ 24 , 111 – 114 ], and the therapeutic part of this article focuses on the direct effect of the EXOs described above, as well as the direct evaluation of cardiotoxicity in the article on the role of EXOs as DOX delivery carriers ( Table 2 ).…”

“…Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity inhibit cardiac damage caused by DOX, and directly treat DIC [10]. There are many studies on EXOs enhancing DOX's anticancer efficacy [24,[111][112][113][114], and the therapeutic part of this article focuses on the direct effect of the EXOs described above, as well as the direct evaluation of cardiotoxicity in the article on the role of EXOs as DOX delivery carriers (Table 2).…”

“…Parental cells that released EXOs are absorbed by receptor cells, through the exchange of substances or release of inclusions to achieve the exchange of substances and signals, to play an important role in reproductive development, immune response, disease occurrence, and other biological processes [ 18 , 19 , 21 , 23 ]. Studies have shown that EXOs are closely related to cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, tumor growth and metastasis, and drug resistance [ 19 , 24 , 25 ].…”