Research Advances of Engineered Exosomes as Drug Delivery Carrier

Abstract

Exosomes are nanoscale vesicles secreted by living cells that have similar membrane composition to parental cells and carry a variety of proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids. Therefore, exosomes have certain biological activities and play an important role in intercellular communication. On the basis of its potential as a carrier for drug delivery systems, exosomes have been engineered to compensate for the shortage of natural exosomes through various engineering strategies for improving drug delivery efficiency, enhancing targeting to tissues and organs, and extending the circulating half-life of exosomes. This review focuses on the engineered exosomes loading drugs through different strategies, discussions on exosome surface modification strategies, and summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of different strategies. In addition, this review provides an overview of the recent applications of engineered exosomes in a number of refractory and relapsable diseases. This review has the potential to provide a reference for further research and development of engineered exosomes.

Engineered exosomes and composite biomaterials for tissue regeneration

“…Natural sources of molecular cargo that are profuse and rich in exosomes can be purified for further research. Exosomes are present in cell culture media, blood, urine, saliva, breast milk, and the majority of bodily fluids 26 . Efficient access to these biofluids is a characteristic that renders exosomes highly suitable for sample collection and biomedical analysis 58 .…”

“…An increasing number of studies have shown that exosomes are vital mediators of paracrine communication and are widely biologically distributed 25 . These extracellular vesicles have been found in almost all bodily fluids, including saliva, milk, amniotic fluid, serum, plasma, and urine 26 . Exosomes are highly effective cellular delivery systems that can carry biologically active factors, such as proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids.…”

“…Additionally, exosomes can cross the blood‒brain barrier (BBB) 42 , 43 . Exosomes possess specific characteristics that render them promising nanomaterials for use in tissue regeneration, drug delivery, and gene delivery 26 , 39 , 40 , 44 - 50 .…”

Fusion of Exosomes and Nanotechnology: Cutting-Edge Cancer Theranostics

“…Current advances in scientific research allow us to achieve a smart solution based on exosomesassociated diagnostic and therapeutic methods for cancer treatment. 14,15 The combination of exosomes and nanotechnology-based exosomes cargo profiling has increased the effectiveness of cancer treatment as it enables targeted delivery of therapeutic agents to the cancer cells. 3,13 Exosomes are a potential therapeutic tool, and modified exosomes transform this platform to the next level.…”

“…This phenomenon can overcome several challenges of the traditional approach, because this is a cell-free approach for cancer and merging exosomes and nanotechnology can pave way to advancement in precision oncology. Current advances in scientific research allow us to achieve a smart solution based on exosomes-associated diagnostic and therapeutic methods for cancer treatment. , The combination of exosomes and nanotechnology-based exosomes cargo profiling has increased the effectiveness of cancer treatment as it enables targeted delivery of therapeutic agents to the cancer cells. , Exosomes are a potential therapeutic tool, and modified exosomes transform this platform to the next level. − However, exosomes-based cancer research faces some complications such as exosomes heterogeneity and lack of standardized isolation protocols . Nanotechnology-based single exosome profiling and exosome barcoding are efficient methods in decoding this complication. , The landscape of the exosomes-based cancer therapeutics research timeline is summarized in Figure .…”