Adv Drug Deliv Rev 2021 May 18;175:113801. Epub 2021 May 18.
Department of Surgery, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, 119228 Singapore, Singapore; Cardiovascular Research Institute (CVRI), National University Heart Centre Singapore (NUHCS), 117599 Singapore, Singapore; Nanomedicine Translational Research Programme, Centre for NanoMedicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, 117609 Singapore, Singapore; Department of Physiology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117593, Singapore. Electronic address:
During the past decades, extracellular vesicles (EVs) have emerged as an attractive drug delivery system. Here, we assess their pre-clinical applications, in the form of a systematic review. For each study published in the past decade, disease models, animal species, EV donor cell types, active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), EV surface modifications, API loading methods, EV size and charge, estimation of EV purity, presence of biodistribution studies and administration routes were quantitatively analyzed in a defined and reproducible way. We have interpreted the trends we observe over the past decade, to define the niches where to apply EVs for drug delivery in the future and to provide a basis for regulatory guidelines.