Anti-tumor effects of engineered exosomes for targeted drug delivery

Dai Yueyou; Guo Dandan; Wang Qianqian; Wang Baiyan; Feng Shuying

doi:10.12307/2025.671

Abstract：BACKGROUND:At present,chemotherapeutic drugs are mainly used for the treatment of tumors,but there are problems such as drug resistance and adverse reactions.The exosome drug delivery system not only avoids the toxicity of synthetic nanoparticles,but also increases the bioavailability and biocompatibility of the drugs.It can be modified by biological,physical,and chemical methods to form a new type of nano-drug delivery platform. OBJECTIVE:To review the construction strategy of exosome drug delivery system,the application status of exosome drug delivery system in tumor diseases and the current challenges. METHODS:PubMed and CNKI were searched with"exosomal,tumor,microvesicle,extracellular vesicles,engineered,therapeutics,characterization,isolation,drug delivery,targeting,modification strategies,physics,chemistry,biology"as English search terms and"exosomes,drug delivery,tumor"as Chinese search terms.A total of 132 articles were included for in-depth induction and discussion. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1)The technical methods of exosome extraction,including ultracentrifugation,filtration,and kit extraction,can efficiently isolate exosomes,but the process is complicated and time-consuming,and large-scale extraction of exosomes cannot be achieved.(2)Engineered exosomes can be divided into four categories:gene editing engineering,which improves function through genetic modification;endogenous engineering,using inflammatory factors and other pretreatment to enhance drug delivery;exogenously engineered to encapsulate drugs directly in exosomes;hybrid engineering,combining exosomes with lipid nanoparticles to form new particles.Some have entered clinical trials for cancer treatment,but most are at an early stage.In contrast,genetically engineered exosomes are considered as an important direction for future drug delivery due to their high targeting and customization potential.(3)There are still many limitations to realize the clinical transformation of engineered exosomes.At the technical level,large-scale production,purification,and drug loading efficiency are urgent to be solved.In production,high cost and batch stability affect its popularity.In terms of safety,immunogenicity and potential toxicity need to be comprehensively evaluated.Furthermore,the imperfect regulatory policies and the complexity of the approval process also constitute obstacles to its clinical translation.(4)In the future,it is necessary to promote the clinical translation process through technical innovation,cost control,safety improvement,and policy improvement.