Wen Xiaowei, Hao Zerun, Yin Haofan, Min Jie, Wang Xueying, Sun Sihan, Ruan Gang
Institute of Analytical Chemistry and Instrument for Life Science, The Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China 710049.
Wisdom Lake Academy of Pharmacy, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, China 215123.
Chem Bio Eng. 2024 Oct 28;2(1):3-22. doi: 10.1021/cbe.4c00122. eCollection 2025 Jan 23.
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are secreted from biological cells and contain many molecules with diagnostic values or therapeutic functions. There has been great interest in academic and industrial communities to utilize EVs as tools for diagnosis or therapeutics. In addition, EVs can also serve as delivery vehicles for therapeutic molecules. An indicator of the enormous interest in EVs is the large number of review articles published on EVs, with the focus ranging from their biology to their applications. An emerging trend in EV research is to produce and utilize "engineered EVs", which are essentially the enhanced version of EVs. EV engineering can be conducted by cell culture condition control, genetic engineering, or chemical engineering. Given their nanometer-scale sizes and therapeutic potentials, engineered EVs are an emerging class of nanomedicines. So far, an overwhelming majority of the research on engineered EVs is preclinical studies; there are only a very small number of reported clinical trials. This Review focuses on engineered EVs, with a more specific focus being their applications in therapeutics. The various approaches to producing engineered EVs and their applications in various diseases are reviewed. Furthermore, imaging of EVs, the mechanistic understandings, and the clinical translation aspects are discussed. The discussion is primarily on preclinical studies while briefly mentioning the clinical trials. With continued interdisciplinary research efforts from biologists, pharmacists, physicians, bioengineers, and chemical engineers, engineered EVs could become a powerful solution for many major diseases such as neurological, immunological, and cardiovascular diseases.
细胞外囊泡（EVs）由生物细胞分泌，含有许多具有诊断价值或治疗功能的分子。学术界和工业界对利用细胞外囊泡作为诊断或治疗工具有着浓厚的兴趣。此外，细胞外囊泡还可作为治疗分子的递送载体。对细胞外囊泡的巨大兴趣的一个指标是发表了大量关于细胞外囊泡的综述文章，其重点涵盖了从它们的生物学特性到应用。细胞外囊泡研究的一个新兴趋势是生产和利用“工程化细胞外囊泡”，它们本质上是细胞外囊泡的增强版。细胞外囊泡工程可以通过细胞培养条件控制、基因工程或化学工程来进行。鉴于其纳米级尺寸和治疗潜力，工程化细胞外囊泡是一类新兴的纳米药物。到目前为止，绝大多数关于工程化细胞外囊泡的研究都是临床前研究；只有极少数已报道的临床试验。本综述聚焦于工程化细胞外囊泡，更具体地关注它们在治疗方面的应用。综述了生产工程化细胞外囊泡的各种方法及其在各种疾病中的应用。此外，还讨论了细胞外囊泡的成像、作用机制理解以及临床转化方面。讨论主要基于临床前研究，同时简要提及临床试验。随着生物学家、药剂师、医生、生物工程师和化学工程师持续的跨学科研究努力，工程化细胞外囊泡可能成为治疗许多重大疾病（如神经、免疫和心血管疾病）的有力解决方案。
