Recent progress of dendritic cell-derived exosomes (Dex) as an anti-cancer nanovaccine

Although cancer vaccines such as dendritic cell (DC) vaccines and peptide vaccines have become appealing and attractive anticancer immunotherapy options in recent decades, some obstacles have hindered their successful application in the clinical setting. The difficulties associated with the high cost of DC preparation, storage of DC vaccines, tumor-mediated immunosuppressive environment, identification of specific tumor antigens, and high degradation of antigen peptides in vivo limit the clinical application and affect the outcomes of these cancer vaccines. Recently, nanocarriers have been considered as a new approach for vaccine delivery. As biogenic nanocarriers, exosomes are small membrane vesicles secreted by cells that carry various proteins, RNAs, and lipids. More importantly, DC-derived exosomes (Dex) express tumor antigens, MHC molecules, and co-stimulatory molecules on their surface, which trigger the release of antigen-specific CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cells. With their membrane structure, Dex can avoid high degradation while ensuring favorable biocompatibility and biosafety in vivo. In addition, Dex can be stored in vitro for a longer period, which facilitates a significant reduction in production costs. Furthermore, they have shown better antitumor efficacy in preclinical studies compared with DC vaccines owing to their higher immunogenicity and stronger resistance to immunosuppressive effects. However, the clinical efficacy of Dex vaccines remains limited. In this review, we aimed to evaluate the efficacy of Dex as an anticancer nanovaccine.