Extracellular vesicles: Targeting the heart

Xin Yin; Li-Hong Jiang

doi:10.3389/fcvm.2022.1041481

Extracellular vesicles: Targeting the heart

Front Cardiovasc Med. 2023 Jan 10:9:1041481. doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2022.1041481. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Xin Yin^{1

2

3}, Li-Hong Jiang^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Life Sciences and Technology, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, China.
² Department of Ultrasound, The Affiliated Hospital of Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, Yunnan, China.
³ The First People's Hospital of Yunnan, Kunming, Yunnan, China.

Abstract

Cardiovascular diseases rank the highest incidence and mortality worldwide. As the most common type of cardiovascular disease, myocardial infarction causes high morbidity and mortality. Recent studies have revealed that extracellular vesicles, including exosomes, show great potential as a promising cell-free therapy for the treatment of myocardial infarction. However, low heart-targeting efficiency and short plasma half-life have hampered the clinical translation of extracellular vesicle therapy. Currently, four major types of strategies aiming at enhancing target efficiency have been developed, including modifying EV surface, suppressing non-target absorption, increasing the uptake efficiency of target cells, and utilizing a hydrogel patch. This presented review summarizes the current research aimed at EV heart targeting and discusses the challenges and opportunities in EV therapy, which will be beneficial for the development of effective heart-targeting strategies.

Keywords: cardiovascular diseases; exosome (vesicle); extracellular vesicles; myocardial infarction; target delivery.

Publication types

Review