Biomimetic Bacterial Membrane Vesicles for Drug Delivery Applications

Numerous factors need to be considered to develop a nanodrug delivery system that is biocompatible, non-toxic, easy to synthesize, cost-effective, and feasible for scale up over and above their therapeutic efficacy. With regards to this, worldwide, exosomes, which are nano-sized vesicles obtained from mammalian cells, are being explored as a biomimetic drug delivery system that has superior biocompatibility and high translational capability. However, the economics of undertaking large-scale mammalian culture to derive exosomal vesicles for translation seems to be challenging and unfeasible. Recently, Bacterial Membrane Vesicles (BMVs) derived from bacteria are being explored as a viable alternative as biomimetic drug delivery systems that can be manufactured relatively easily at much lower costs at a large scale. Until now, BMVs have been investigated extensively as successful immunomodulating agents, but their capability as drug delivery systems remains to be explored in detail. In this review, the use of BMVs as suitable cargo delivery vehicles is discussed with focus on their use for in vivo treatment of cancer and bacterial infections reported thus far. Additionally, the different types of BMVs, factors affecting their synthesis and different cargo loading techniques used in BMVs are also discussed.