Exosomes 2022 : Bioengineering Special Issue: Exosomes based Drug Delivery System

Dear Colleagues,

Exosomes are the membrane-bound, nanoscale natural vehicles that facilitate noncontact cell–cell communications, showing a promising potential for targeted therapeutics or early diagnosis of cancers, neurodegenerative and infectious diseases, etc. As one of the most accessible laboratory nanovesicles in vitro, exosomes are emerging nanocarriers for anticancer drugs, therapeutic proteins, and oligonucleotides to regulate cancer–immune/–microbiota interaction, and transport therapeutics into nervous, sensory and secretory tissues. By chemically, metabolically, and genetically engineering exosomes with membranous targeting ligands and encapsulated therapeutic agents, the resulting exosomes exhibit important properties such as high drug loading, better targeting abilities, and a higher in vivo therapeutic index. Further, the novel platform of physical manipulations such as sonication and electroporation on chip for effective drug loading is driving exosome-based drug delivery to a high-throughput, generalizable strategy. Moreover, advances in exosome-based nanoreactors are illuminating the field to build up a programmable, smart exosome-based drug delivery system. To date, clinical trials using exosomes for immunotherapy and cancer vaccine treating glioma, colon cancer, and head and neck cancer are ongoing. This collection aims toward an update in these fields with review/original articles dedicated to the development of novel engineering methodologies, microfluidic platforms, and various applications of engineered or natural exosomes as therapeutic carriers in different diseases.

Please contact Sophie Wang ([email protected]) if you have any questions.

Dr. Xiaoshu Pan
Prof. Dr. Jinmai Jiang
Guest Editors