Extracellular Vesicles as Potential Therapeutics for Inflammatory Diseases

Abstract

Extracellular vesicles (EV) deliver cargoes such as nucleic acids, proteins, and lipids between cells and serve as an intercellular communicator. As it is revealed that most of the functions associated to EVs are closely related to the immune response, the important role of EVs in inflammatory diseases is emerging. EVs can be functionalized through EV surface engineering and endow targeting moiety that allows for the target specificity for therapeutic applications in inflammatory diseases. Moreover, engineered EVs are considered as promising nanoparticles to develop personalized therapeutic carriers. In this review, we highlight the role of EVs in various inflammatory diseases, the application of EV as anti-inflammatory therapeutics, and the current state of the art in EV engineering techniques.

Keywords: EV engineering; biomarker; extracellular vesicle; inflammatory disease.

Scheme 1

Surface engineering techniques of EVs and targeting strategies for inflammation. Cell engineering methods that express peptides, proteins and antibodies on the EV surface could enhance specific immune responses and cell targeting capabilities. The method of attaching various substances through chemical modification could provide new functions different from normal EV. These EVs could achieve increased cell specificity and circulation times. In addition, it can be applied to inflammation by activating immune cells with peptides or antibodies expressed on the EVs surface, and by diagnosing cancer proteins on the EVs surface using aptamers. Attachment of specific peptides to EVs increases cell binding affinity, therapeutic efficacy, and delivery rate, and attachment of specific antibodies can lead to activation of cytotoxic T cells.