Smart nano-sized extracellular vesicles for cancer therapy: Potential theranostic applications in gastrointestinal tumors

• Published in: Critical reviews in oncology/hematology Vol. 191; p. 104121
• Main Authors: Lucchetti, Donatella, Colella, Filomena, Artemi, Giulia, Haque, Shafiul, Sgambato, Alessandro, Pellicano, Rinaldo, Fagoonee, Sharmila
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01-11-2023
• Subjects: Biodistribution; Clinical application; Drug loading; Extracellular vesicles; Labelling; Preclinical models; Clinical application; HFD; Extracellular vesicles; Labelling; Drug loading; TNF; UF; MSCs; PALM; RFP; IL; TRAIL; IP; HCC; IV; AF4; SEC; EV; DSPE-PEG; PDAC; CRC; MVB; OMV; AIEgens; lncRNA; miRNAs; MRI; PPI; ORO; Biodistribution; Preclinical models; DGUC; SPECT; GFP; IFN; SC; DUC; NHS; PDT; PDX; GNPs; MVs; STORM; PEG; DBCO; ReNL; AdMSC; ISEV; KRAS; SMLM; PET
• ISSN: 1040-8428; 1879-0461
• DOI: 10.1016/j.critrevonc.2023.104121

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have gained tremendous interest in the search for next-generation therapeutics for the treatment of a range of pathologies, including cancer, especially due to their small size, biomolecular cargo, ability to mediate intercellular communication, high physicochemical stability, low immunogenicity and biocompatibility. The theranostic potential of EVs have been enhanced by adopting several strategies such as genetic or metabolic engineering, parental cell modification or direct functionalization to incorporate therapeutic compounds into these nanoplatforms. The smart nano-sized EVs indeed offer huge opportunities in the field of cancer, and current research is set at overcoming the existing pitfalls. Smart EVs are already being applied in the clinics despite the challenges faced. We provide, herein, an update on the technologies employed for EV functionalization in order to achieve optimal tumor cell targeting and EV tracking in vivo with bio-imaging modalities, as well as the preclinical and clinical studies making use of these modified EVs, in the context of gastrointestinal tumors.
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•Designing and production of new nanomaterials is becoming a top-priority research goal.•EVs, natural nano-sized systems released by cells, have attracted the attention of researchers in the biomedical field.•The intrinsic properties of EVs are: good biocompatibility and low immunogenicity.•Advances in EV labelling and tracking can be important for the potential use of these smart EVs in the cancer clinics.•Surface functionalization and other technologies to generate engineered EVs, play a key role in development of smart EVs.