Therapeutic Use of Extracellular Vesicles for Acute and Chronic Lung Disease

• Published in: International journal of molecular sciences Vol. 21; no. 7; p. 2318
• Main Authors: Worthington, Erin N, Hagood, James S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 27-03-2020; MDPI
• Subjects: Acute Lung Injury - therapy; Animal models; Animals; Asthma - therapy; Biomarkers; Biosynthesis; Bone marrow; Cytokines; Dysplasia; Extracellular Vesicles; Fibrosis; Humans; Hypertension; Inflammation; Influenza; lung disease; Lung diseases; Lung Diseases - therapy; Mesenchymal Stem Cell Transplantation - methods; Mesenchymal Stem Cells; Mesenchyme; MicroRNAs; Mortality; Permeability; Protein expression; Proteins; pulmonary disease; Pulmonary hypertension; Respiratory distress syndrome; Respiratory Distress Syndrome - therapy; Review; Secretome; Silicosis; Stem cell transplantation; Stem cells; Studies; Vesicles; lung disease; extracellular vesicles; pulmonary disease; mesenchymal stem cells
• ISSN: 1422-0067; 1661-6596; 1422-0067
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms21072318

Multipotent mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) possess regenerative properties and have been shown to improve outcomes and survival in acute and chronic lung diseases, but there have been some safety concerns raised related to MSC-based therapy. Subsequent studies have demonstrated that many of the regenerative effects of MSCs can be attributed to the MSC-derived secretome, which contains soluble factors and extracellular vesicles (EVs). MSC-derived extracellular vesicles (MSC-derived EVs) replicate many of the beneficial effects of MSCs and contain a variety of bioactive factors that are transferred to recipient cells, mediating downstream signaling. MSC-derived EV therapy holds promise as a safe and effective treatment for pulmonary disease, but there remain many scientific and clinical questions that will need to be addressed before EVs are widely applied as a therapy. To date, the use of MSC-derived EVs as a treatment for lung disease has been conducted primarily in in vitro or pre-clinical animal models. In this review, we will discuss the current published research investigating the use of EVs as a potential therapeutic for acute lung injury/acute respiratory distress syndrome (ALI/ARDS), bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), asthma, and silicosis.