Engineering approaches for effective therapeutic applications based on extracellular vesicles.

Kwon S

Kwon S(1), Shin S(2), Do M(3), Oh BH(1), Song Y(1), Bui VD(1), Lee ES(2), Jo DG(4), Cho YW(5), Kim DH(6), Park JH(7).
Author information:
(1)School of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 16419, Republic of Korea.
(2)Department of Health Sciences and Technology, SAIHST, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul 06351, Republic of Korea.
(3)Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
(4)Department of Health Sciences and Technology, SAIHST, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul 06351, Republic of Korea; Biomedical Institute for Convergence at SKKU, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 16419, Republic of Korea; School of Pharmacy, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 16419, Republic of Korea; ExoStemTech Inc., Ansan 15588, Republic of Korea.
(5)ExoStemTech Inc., Ansan 15588, Republic of Korea; Department of Chemical Engineering, Hanyang University, Ansan 15588, Republic of Korea.
(6)Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA; Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. Electronic address: [Email]
(7)School of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 16419, Republic of Korea; Department of Health Sciences and Technology, SAIHST, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul 06351, Republic of Korea; Biomedical Institute for Convergence at SKKU, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 16419, Republic of Korea; ExoStemTech Inc., Ansan 15588, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: [Email]

https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jconrel.2020.11.062

The biological significance of extracellular vesicles (EVs) as intercellular communication mediators has been increasingly revealed in a wide range of normal physiological processes and disease pathogenesis. In particular, regenerative and immunomodulatory EVs hold potential as innate biotherapeutics, whereas pathological EVs are considered therapeutic targets for inhibiting their bioactivity. Given their ability to transport functional cargos originating from the source cells to target cells, EVs can also be used as a therapeutic means to deliver drug molecules. This review aims to provide an updated overview of the key engineering approaches for better exploiting EVs in disease intervention. The emphasis is lying on the preconditioning methods for therapeutic EVs, drug loading and targeting technologies for carrier EVs, and activity control strategies for pathological EVs.