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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Mar 5.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Rev Immunol. 2014 Mar;14(3):195–208. doi: 10.1038/nri3622

Figure 3. Role of extracellular vesicles in regulating tumor and microbe immunity that can be modified for therapeutic applications.

Figure 3

Professional APCs (i.e. DCs) process tumor- or microbe-derived Ags for presentation to CTLs or CD4 T cells. A similar approach can be employed in vitro for generation of immunogenic EVs for therapeutic applications, by pulsing the APCs with tumor- or pathogen-derived Ags, or by genetically engineered the APCs to target the desired-Ags to the exosome membrane. Similarly, the APC can be modified to express immunosuppressive or immunostimulatory cytokines or ligands, rendering the EVs released from the APCs able to suppress or stimulate Ag-specific immune responses.