Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 8, 2025
Preparation of Exosomes for siRNA Delivery to Cancer Cells
Published on: December 5, 2018
Recent advances in exosome-mediated nucleic acid delivery for cancer therapy
Ying Zhang1,2, Qiqi Liu2, Xinmeng Zhang2
1Central Laboratory of Longgang District People's Hospital of Shenzhen & The Second Affiliated Hospital, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, 518172, China.
Abstract:
Cancer is a leading public health problem worldwide. Its treatment remains a daunting challenge, although significant progress has been made in existing treatments in recent years. A large concern is the poor therapeutic effect due to lack of specificity and low bioavailability. Gene therapy has recently emerged as a powerful tool for cancer therapy. However, delivery methods limit its therapeutic effects. Exosomes, a subset of extracellular vesicles secreted by most cells, have the characteristics of good biocompatibility, low toxicity and immunogenicity, and great designability. In the past decades, as therapeutic carriers and diagnostic markers, they have caught extensive attention. This review introduced the characteristics of exosomes, and focused on their applications as delivery carriers in DNA, messenger RNA (mRNA), microRNA (miRNA), small interfering RNA (siRNA), circular RNA (circRNA) and other nucleic acids. Meanwhile, their application in cancer therapy and exosome-based clinical trials were presented and discussed. Through systematic summarization and analysis, the recent advances and current challenges of exosome-mediated nucleic acid delivery for cancer therapy are introduced, which will provide a theoretical basis for the development of nucleic acid drugs.
Insights
Exosomes, tiny vesicles, show promise for delivering genetic material like DNA and RNA to treat cancer, overcoming limitations of current gene therapies. This review explores their potential in cancer treatment and ongoing clinical trials.
Area of Science:
- Biomedical Engineering
- Molecular Biology
- Oncology
Background:
- Cancer remains a significant global health challenge with limitations in current treatment efficacy due to poor specificity and bioavailability.
- Gene therapy offers a promising avenue for cancer treatment, but effective delivery methods are crucial for its success.
- Exosomes, naturally occurring extracellular vesicles, possess favorable biocompatibility, low toxicity, and inherent designability, making them attractive for therapeutic applications.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the characteristics of exosomes as potential delivery vehicles for nucleic acids in cancer therapy.
- To summarize the applications of exosomes in delivering various nucleic acids, including DNA, mRNA, miRNA, siRNA, and circRNA.
- To discuss the current advances and challenges in exosome-mediated nucleic acid delivery for cancer treatment and related clinical trials.
Main Methods:
- Systematic review and analysis of existing literature on exosome characteristics and functions.
- Focused review on exosome applications as carriers for diverse nucleic acid types (DNA, mRNA, miRNA, siRNA, circRNA).
- Discussion of exosome-based cancer therapy strategies and an overview of relevant clinical trials.
Main Results:
- Exosomes exhibit excellent biocompatibility, low toxicity, and immunogenicity, along with high designability, positioning them as effective natural carriers.
- Exosomes can be engineered to deliver various nucleic acids, enhancing targeted delivery and therapeutic outcomes in preclinical cancer models.
- Exosome-mediated nucleic acid delivery has shown potential in improving cancer treatment specificity and bioavailability, with several exosome-based clinical trials underway.
Conclusions:
- Exosomes represent a promising platform for nucleic acid delivery in cancer gene therapy, addressing key limitations of conventional treatments.
- Further research and development in exosome engineering and clinical translation are essential to fully realize their therapeutic potential.
- This review provides a comprehensive overview of exosome-mediated nucleic acid delivery, offering a foundation for future advancements in nucleic acid-based cancer therapeutics.
More Related Videos
08:49Exosomal miRNA Analysis in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer NSCLC Patients' Plasma Through qPCR: A Feasible Liquid Biopsy Tool
Published on: May 27, 2016
08:50Scalable Biomanufacturing Workflow to Produce and Isolate Natural Killer Cell-Derived Extracellular Vesicle-Based Cancer Biotherapeutics
Published on: August 16, 2024
Related Concept Videos
01:36Overview of Exosomes
Stahl et al. discovered exosomes in 1983, but the exosomes were initially considered waste products released from the...
02:57Targeted Cancer Therapies
There are several types of targeted therapies against...
02:49Cancer Therapies
However, cancer treatments can pose several challenges, as therapies used to kill cancer cells are generally also toxic to normal cells. Moreover, cancer cells mutate rapidly and can develop resistance to chemical agents or radiation therapy. Besides, all types of cancer cells may not respond to the same therapy. Some cancer cells respond to one...