Abstract
The role of extracellular vesicles as an important mediator of cell-to-cell communication has been well established by many studies that have shown their capability for exchanging proteins, bioactive lipids and nucleic acids. Extracellular vesicles have been implicated in several physiological and pathological processes according to the cell of origin. Identification of the innate properties of extracellular vesicles derived from stem cells and from immune cells has led to the possibility of their exploitation in regenerative medicine and immune therapies. As extracellular vesicles are able to cross biological barriers, express surface receptors and contain defined cargoes able to target specific cells/tissues, they may represent a biocompatible and effective tool for drug delivery. Herein, we review and discuss the perspectives related to the therapeutic opportunities of extracellular vesicles.
Highlights
Liposomes, which are synthetic phospholipid vesicles, have been used in the delivery of anticancer agents for the treatment of different solid tumours [1]
We found that extracellular vesicles (EV) released by endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) activated angiogenesis in quiescent endothelial cells by transferring pro-angiogenic mRNA [22] and miRNA [34] fromEPCs to endothelial cells
This property can be exploited for therapy in different fields, as EV retain several biological activities of the cell of origin
Summary
Liposomes, which are synthetic phospholipid vesicles, have been used in the delivery of anticancer agents for the treatment of different solid tumours [1]. Some exosomes may contain the heat shock 70kDa protein 8 and Rab-GTPases [13, 14] This distinction, based on biogenesis, size, sedimentation on sucrose gradients, protein and lipid composition, remains confusing because the markers used for defining vesicles are frequently not exclusive, and may vary depending on the cell of origin. The exRNA that may convey paracrine/endocrine signals are present in all human biological fluids in degradative enzyme-protected forms, and are associated with protein carriers such as Ago and HDL or encapsulated within EV [25,26,27,28,29] Both microvesicles and exosomes are exRNA enriched and include mRNA, microRNA (miRNA) and long non-coding RNA, and may enable transfer of genetic information between cells, which infers important physiological and pathological implications. The innate therapeutic potential of EV derived from certain cell types can be exploited, for example stem cells; on the other hand, EV may represent a biocompatible and effective tool for drug delivery, as they are able to cross biological barriers [31]
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