Figure 4.

Potential Therapeutic Use of Extracellular Vesicles

Potential therapeutic application of extracellular vesicles includes the following 4 critical steps: 1) Extracellular vesicles can be modified by using tissue- or cell-type-specific ligands present on their surface. Endogenously expressed molecules such as miRNA and noncoding RNAs can be genetically engineered for therapeutic use (e.g., genetic modification by overexpression therapeutic nucleic acids). 2) Exogenous loading permits the collection of extracellular vesicles with desired cargo molecules. The collection and purification of extracellular vesicles can be carried out by various methods, including differential ultracentrifugation, ultrafiltration, sucrose gradient centrifugation, or immunoprecipitation. 3) Extracellular vesicles, loaded by any of these strategies, can be delivered into target cells or tissues with different delivery methods (e.g., intravenously injection or intracellular injection). 4) The loaded vesicles can function as favorable effectors in intercellular vascular signaling, contributing to the cardiovascular regeneration in damaged tissue.