Exosomes are lipid bilayer vesicles released from cells as a mechanism of intracellular communication. Containing information molecules of their parental cells and inclining to fuse with targeted cells, exosomes are valuable in disease diagnosis and drug delivery. The realization of their clinic applications still faces difficulties, such as lacking technologies for fast purification and functional reading. The advancement of nanotechnology in recent decades makes it promising to overcome these difficulties. In this article, we summarized recent progress in utilizing the physiochemical properties of nanoparticles (NPs) to enhance exosome purification and detection sensitivity or to derive novel technologies. We also discussed the valuable applications of exosomes in NPs-based drug delivery. Till now most studies in these fields are still at the laboratory research stage. Translation of these bench works into clinic applications still has a long way to go.
Keywords: exosome; nanomedicine; nanoparticle; targeted drug delivery.
© 2021 The Authors. Bioengineering & Translational Medicine published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Institute of Chemical Engineers.