Mesenchymal Cell-Derived Exosomes as Novel Useful Candidates for Drug Delivery

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are one of the most accessible adult multipotent stem cells that can be harvested from various tissues. The tissue regeneration field uses MSCs because of their therapeutic potential in tissue damage repair, inflammation suppression, and anti-tumor therapies, relying on their targeted homing and differentiation capability into specialized cells. It is proposed that the paracrine activities of MSCs, including secretory trophic factors, survival signals, and extracellular vesicle release, are the principal mechanism to mediate MSCs function. Current studies show that exosomes secreted by MSCs may also contribute to MSCs' physiological function. Indeed, they can be introduced as hopeful novel candidates for drug delivery due to their nanoscale naturally-occurring structure, more stability, less immunogenicity, and the ability to pass through biological barriers without rejection to deliver their cargos to recipient cells and tissues. Moreover, exosomes may anticipate beneficial nanocarrier vehicles in targeted drug delivery systems.