Engineering Exosomes and Exosome-like Nanovesicles for Improving Targeted Retention

Exosomes are natural nano-size particles secreted by cells of the human, containing a variety of bioactive cargos. Serve as crucial mediators of intercellular communication, exosomes are involved in a range of physiological and pathological processes, including inflammation, tissue injury, cardiovascular diseases, tumorigenesis and tumor development. Exosomes have exhibited promising results for diagnose and treat against cancer, cardiovascular disease and other diseases. They are a rapidly growing class of drug delivery vehicles with many advantages over conventional synthetic carriers. Exosomes used in therapeutic applications encounters several challenges, such as the lack of tissue targeting capabilities and short residence time. Herein, this review focus on the recent advances in exosomes engineering to improve tissue targeting and describes the current types of engineered exosome-like nanovesicles, summarizes their preclinical applications in the treatment of diseases. In addition, we also highlight the latest engineering strategies developed to extend the in vivo retention time of exosomes and exosome-like nanovesicles.