New therapeutic approaches of mesenchymal stem cells-derived exosomes

Abstract

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been demonstrated to have a great potential in the treatment of several diseases due to their differentiation and immunomodulatory capabilities and their ability to be easily cultured and manipulated. Recent investigations revealed that their therapeutic effect is largely mediated by the secretion of paracrine factors including exosomes. Exosomes reflect biophysical features of MSCs and are considered more effective than MSCs themselves. Alternative approaches based on MSC-derived exosomes can offer appreciable promise in overcoming the limitations and practical challenges observed in cell-based therapy. Furthermore, MSC-derived exosomes may provide a potent therapeutic strategy for various diseases and are promising candidates for cell-based and cell-free regenerative medicine. This review briefly summarizes the development of MSCs as a treatment for human diseases as well as describes our current knowledge about exosomes: their biogenesis and molecular composition, and how they exert their effects on target cells. Particularly, the therapeutic potential of MSC-derived exosomes in experimental models and recent clinical trials to evaluate their safety and efficacy are summarized in this study. Overall, this paper provides a current overview of exosomes as a new cell-free therapeutic agent.

Characterization and Therapeutic Use of Extracellular Vesicles Derived from Platelets

“…EVs from various cell types, mainly including mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), are currently being explored as “cell-free” therapeutic tools and have been extensively studied for their role in stimulating tissue regeneration by conferring proangiogenic, proliferative, anti-apoptotic and anti-inflammatory actions thorough transport of their protein cargo and RNAs [ 119 , 120 ]. The growing number of recent studies also suggests that the regenerative potential of the MSC treatments is mediated by EVs or conditioned medium rather than by cells [ 121 , 122 , 123 , 124 ].…”

Translational and Clinical Applications of Dental Stem Cell-Derived Exosomes

“…However, accumulative evidence has demonstrated that exosomes carry many bioactive molecules including nucleic acids, proteins, lipids, metabolites ( Zhang Y. et al, 2020 ; Kalluri and LeBleu 2020 ). These encapsulated materials are transported to neighboring or distant cells selectively, which contribute to cell-cell communication, signal transduction, immune response modulation, antigen presentation, and epigenetic reprogramming of recipient cells ( Janockova et al, 2021 ). The biological functions of exosomes are heavily dependent on physiological/pathological conditions of originating tissues or cells at the time of exosome secretion, and the surface receptors of the recipient cells ( Alcayaga-Miranda et al, 2016 ).…”

Application of Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Targeted Delivery to the Brain: Potential and Challenges of the Extracellular Vesicle-Based Approach for Brain Tumor Treatment

“…Several studies compared the MSC-based versus MSC-EV-based therapies, showing similar outcomes and insignificant differences in therapeutic performance between the two approaches (reviewed in [ 66 , 107 , 108 ]). Visualization of the mouse brains after intranasal delivery of MSCs or MSC-EVs demonstrated that MSC-EVs produced much higher signals of integration into the brain parenchyma than MSCs, both on bioimaging with fluorescent labelling and on immunostaining [ 109 ].…”