Exosomes are nanosized extracellular vesicles secreted by nearly all viable cells following the fusing of multivesicular bodies and the plasma membrane and discharged into the encircling bodily fluids. Exosomes can transport cell-specific components from the source cell to the target cell. Given the enormous potential of exosomes as non-invasive diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic nanovehicles. Lately, accumulated evidence has demonstrated that exosomes serve an important role in prognosis, diagnosis, and even treatment strategies. While several reviews have collective information on the biomedical application of exosomes, a comprehensive review incorporating updated and improved methodologies for beneficial applications of such vesicles in cancer theranostics is indispensable. In the current review, we first provided a comprehensive review of the introduction of exosomes, featuring their discovery, separation, characterization, function, biogenesis, secretion. The implications of exosomes as promising nanovehicles for drug and gene delivery, application of exosome inhibitors in the management of cancers, completed and ongoing clinical trials on the biological relevance of exosomes are then discussed in detail. As the field of exosome research grows, a better understanding of the subcellular parts and mechanisms involved in exosome secretion and targeting of specific cells will help figure out what their exact physiological functions are in the body.
Keywords: Cancer; Exosomes; Theranostics.
© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.