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Updated: Dec 21, 2025

Characterizing Extracellular Vesicles from Biological Fluids
Published on: February 28, 2025
Extracellular Vesicle- and Extracellular Vesicle Mimetics-Based Drug Delivery Systems: New Perspectives, Challenges,
Prakash Gangadaran1,2, Byeong-Cheol Ahn1,2
1Department of Nuclear Medicine, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Kyungpook National University Hospital, Daegu 41944, Korea.
Abstract:
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are small membrane-based nanovesicles naturally released from cells. Extracellular vesicles mimetics (EVMs) are artificial vesicles engineered from cells or in combination with lipid materials, and they mimic certain characteristics of EVs. As such, EVs facilitate intracellular communication by carrying and delivering biological materials, such as proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids, and they have been found to find organ tropism in preclinical studies. Because of their native structure and characteristics, they are considered promising drug carriers for future clinical use. This review outlines the origin and composition of natural EVs and EVM engineering and internalization. It then details different loading approaches, with examples of the drug delivery of therapeutic molecules. In addition, the advantages and disadvantages of loading drugs into EVs or EVMs as a drug delivery system are discussed. Finally, the advantages of EVMs over EVs and the future clinical translation of EVM-based drug delivery platforms are outlined.
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