TABLE 1.

Common approaches for cargo loading into exosomes.

Approaches	Advantages	Drawbacks	References
Physical methods
Sonication	High loading efficiency, size reduction and removal of the naïve contents of exosome	Heat generation	Sancho-Albero et al., 2019; Jang et al., 2021
Electroporation	Powerful loading, ease in control	Aggregation of cargoes	Johnsen et al., 2016
Freeze-thaw	Mild process to load miRNA and proteins	Unspecific loading efficiency	Tran et al., 2019
Extrusion	Relative high loading efficiency, uniform size distribution of exosomes	Possible alteration the properties of exosome membranes	Fuhrmann et al., 2015; Haney et al., 2015
Chemical methods
Saponin-assisted permeation	Incorporation of proteins directly, high encapsulation efficiency under right conditions	Hemolytic function	Fuhrmann et al., 2015; Sancho-Albero et al., 2019
Transfection	Convenience in the loading of nucleic acids	Toxicity to cells, difficulty in purification	Wahlgren et al., 2012; Wang Q.Z. et al., 2021
Biological methods
Incubation	Simple operation, maintenance of the activity of cells/exosomes	Low encapsulation efficiency	Haney et al., 2015; Brossa et al., 2021
Viral transduction	Stably loading of nucleic acids into exosomes, possible enrichment of the exosome functions	Safety risks, laborious and time-consuming	Fu et al., 2020; Zhao X. et al., 2020