Extracellular Vesicles: Emerging Roles, Biomarkers and Therapeutic Strategies in Fibrotic Diseases

Overview

Journal J Nanobiotechnology

Publisher Biomed Central

Specialty Biotechnology

Date 2023 May 24

PMID 37221595

Authors

Junyan Zhu

Sicong Wang

Dakai Yang

Wenrong Xu

Hui Qian

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Extracellular vesicles (EVs), a cluster of cell-secreted lipid bilayer nanoscale particles, universally exist in body fluids, as well as cell and tissue culture supernatants. Over the past years, increasing attention have been paid to the important role of EVs as effective intercellular communicators in fibrotic diseases. Notably, EV cargos, including proteins, lipids, nucleic acids, and metabolites, are reported to be disease-specific and can even contribute to fibrosis pathology. Thus, EVs are considered as effective biomarkers for disease diagnosis and prognosis. Emerging evidence shows that EVs derived from stem/progenitor cells have great prospects for cell-free therapy in various preclinical models of fibrotic diseases and engineered EVs can improve the targeting and effectiveness of their treatment. In this review, we will focus on the biological functions and mechanisms of EVs in the fibrotic diseases, as well as their potential as novel biomarkers and therapeutic strategies.

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