Development of Disease Therapy Using Extracellular Vesicles Derived from Mammalian Cells

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are cell-derived membrane vsicles that contain biologically active molecules, such as proteins and nucleic acids, originating from EV-producing cells. Because EVs can deliver their contents to recipient cells, they exert biological effects via intercellular delivery. Accordingly, EVs derived from certain types of mammalian cells, particularly mesenchymal stem cells, can be used as therapeutic agents by utilizing their biological properties. Therefore, mammalian cell-derived EVs are considered the most promising EVs for therapeutic applications. However, several critical challenges must be addressed before EV-based therapies can be successfully implemented. These include elucidating the pharmacokinetics of EVs, and establishing robust methods for their large-scale production and validation. This review outlines the current progress in overcoming these challenges and discusses the remaining issues that need to be addressed to enable the practical application of EV-based therapies in clinical settings.