Regenerative Potential of Stem Cell-derived Extracellular Vesicles in Spinal Cord Injury (SCI)

Abstract

Spinal cord injury is a devastating condition that is critically challenging and progressive, needing immediate medical attention due to its complex pathophysiology and affecting the social status and economic burden. Stem cell therapy has been the emerging therapeutic trend to treat various diseases for decades. Mesenchymal stem cells pose more advantages over other stem cells in immune-modulation, immune evasiveness, self-renewal, multipotency, etc. Due to various issues in the recent past related to allogenic transplants, ethical concerns in obtaining tissues and adult cells, host immune response, GMP grade production and certification, cell-derived products or cell secretome have proven to be a promising approach and have been implicated in many studies and also in many clinical trials. Utilization of these human MSC-derived exosomes/extracellular vesicles in spinal cord injury has also been demonstrated in many pre-clinical animal models. It is now proven to be therapeutically more efficient and safer than cell therapy. This review focuses on employing human MSC derived EVs for SCI and continues to elucidate the recent advances and emerging EVs trends from other cell types. We discuss biomaterial-based synergistic intervention, mention mimetics and nanovesicles and finally touch upon safety concerns in EV therapy.

Keywords: Extracellular vesicles; angiogenesis; apoptosis; autophagy; exosomes; inflammation; mesenchymal stem cells; motor recovery; neuroprotection; spinal cord injury; stem cells.