CRISPR delivery with extracellular vesicles: Promises and challenges

Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine: Perspectives and Challenges

From the pioneering days of cell therapy to the achievement of bioprinting organs, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine have seen tremendous technological advancements, offering solutions for restoring damaged tissues and organs. However, only a few products and technologies have received United States Food and Drug Administration approval. This review highlights significant progress in cell therapy, extracellular vesicle-based therapy, and tissue engineering. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is a powerful tool for treating many diseases, especially hematological malignancies. Mesenchymal stem cells have been extensively studied. The discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells has revolutionized disease modeling and regenerative applications, paving the way for personalized medicine. Gene therapy represents an innovative approach to the treatment of genetic disorders. Additionally, extracellular vesicle-based therapies have emerged as rising stars, offering promising solutions in diagnostics, cell-free therapeutics, drug delivery, and targeted therapy. Advances in tissue engineering enable complex tissue constructs, further transforming the field. Despite these advancements, many technical, ethical, and regulatory challenges remain. This review addresses the current bottlenecks, emphasizing novel technologies and interdisciplinary research to overcome these hurdles. Standardizing practices and conducting clinical trials will balance innovation and regulation, improving patient outcomes and quality of life.

Clinical Impact of Exosome Chemistry in Cancer

As we progress into the 21st century, cancer stands as one of the most dreaded diseases. With approximately one in every four individuals facing a lifetime risk of developing cancer, cancer remains one of the most serious health challenges worldwide. Its multifaceted nature makes it an arduous and tricky problem to diagnose and treat. Over the years, researchers have explored plenty of approaches and avenues to improve cancer management. One notable strategy includes the study of extracellular vesicles (EVs) as potential biomarkers and therapeutics. Among these EVs, exosomes have emerged as particularly promising candidates due to their unique characteristic properties and functions. They are small membrane-bound vesicles secreted by cells carrying a cargo of biomolecules such as proteins, nucleic acids, and lipids. These vesicles play crucial roles in intercellular communication, facilitating the transfer of biological information between cell-to-cell communication. Exosomes transport cargoes such as DNA, RNA, proteins, and lipids involved in cellular reprogramming and promoting cancer. In this review, we explore the molecular composition of exosomes, significance of exosomes chemistry in cancer development, and its theranostic application as well as exosomes research complications and solutions.

Integrating CRISPR technology with exosomes: Revolutionizing gene delivery systems

CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) serves as an adaptive immune system in bacteria and archaea, offering a defense mechanism against invading genetic elements such as viruses (bacteriophages) and plasmids. Today, CRISPR has evolved into a powerful gene-editing technology that enables highly specific and rapid modifications of DNA within a genome. It has a broad range of applications across various fields, including medicine, agriculture, and fundamental research. One of the significant challenges facing this technology is the efficient transfer of CRISPR constructs into target cells for gene editing. There are several methods to deliver this system into target cells, which can be classified as viral and non-viral methods. Each of these approaches has its own advantages and disadvantages. Recently, the use of extracellular vesicles for delivery has garnered particular attention. Exosomes are nano-sized extracellular vesicles that have emerged as promising carriers for drug delivery due to their unique properties. These naturally occurring vesicles, typically ranging from 30 to 150 nm in diameter, facilitate intercellular communication by transferring bioactive molecules such as proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids between cells. Exosome therapy has surfaced as a promising strategy in regenerative medicine, utilizing small extracellular vesicles to deliver therapeutic molecules to target cells. One of the emerging options for transferring the CRISPR system is exosomes. The integration of these two advanced technologies holds significant potential for developing efficient and targeted gene editing and advancing precision medicine. In contemporary medicine, there is an increasing focus on personalized and targeted treatments that cater to the distinct genetic and molecular profiles of individual patients. The synergy of CRISPR technology and exosome therapy presents a remarkable opportunity to develop highly targeted and effective therapeutic strategies customized to individual patient requirements. This review article examines the potential of incorporating CRISPR technology within exosomes for precision therapeutic applications.

Landscape of exosomes to modified exosomes: a state of the art in cancer therapy

Exosomes are a subpopulation of extracellular vesicles (EVs) that naturally originate from endosomes. They play a significant role in cellular communication. Tumor-secreted exosomes play a crucial role in cancer development and significantly contribute to tumorigenesis, angiogenesis, and metastasis by intracellular communication. Tumor-derived exosomes (TEXs) are a promising biomarker source of cancer detection in the early stages. On the other hand, they offer revolutionary cutting-edge approaches to cancer therapeutics. Exosomes offer a cell-free approach to cancer therapeutics, which overcomes immune cell and stem cell therapeutics-based limitations (complication, toxicity, and cost of treatment). There are multiple sources of therapeutic exosomes present (stem cells, immune cells, plant cells, and synthetic and modified exosomes). This article explores the dynamic source of exosomes (plants, mesenchymal stem cells, and immune cells) and their modification (chimeric, hybrid exosomes, exosome-based CRISPR, and drug delivery) based on cancer therapeutic development. This review also highlights exosomes based clinical trials and the challenges and future orientation of exosome research. We hope that this article will inspire researchers to further explore exosome-based cancer therapeutic platforms for precision oncology.

Strategies for enhanced gene delivery to the central nervous system

The delivery of genes to the central nervous system (CNS) has been a persistent challenge due to various biological barriers. The blood-brain barrier (BBB), in particular, hampers the access of systemically injected drugs to parenchymal cells, allowing only a minimal percentage (<1%) to pass through. Recent scientific insights highlight the crucial role of the extracellular space (ECS) in governing drug diffusion. Taking into account advancements in vectors, techniques, and knowledge, the discussion will center on the most notable vectors utilized for gene delivery to the CNS. This review will explore the influence of the ECS - a dynamically regulated barrier-on drug diffusion. Furthermore, we will underscore the significance of employing remote-control technologies to facilitate BBB traversal and modulate the ECS. Given the rapid progress in gene editing, our discussion will also encompass the latest advances focused on delivering therapeutic editing in vivo to the CNS tissue. In the end, a brief summary on the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML), ultrasmall, soft endovascular robots, and high-resolution endovascular cameras on improving the gene delivery to the CNS will be provided.

Exosomes: A Cutting-Edge Theranostics Tool for Oral Cancer

Exosomes are a subpopulation of extracellular vesicles (EVs) secreted by cells. In cancer, they are key cellular messengers during cancer development and progression. Tumor-derived exosomes (TEXs) promote cancer progression. In oral cancer, the major complication is oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Exosomes show strong participation in several OSCC-related activities such as uncontrolled cell growth, immune suppression, angiogenesis, metastasis, and drug and therapeutic resistance. It is also a potential biomarker source for oral cancer. Some therapeutic exosome sources such as stem cells, plants (it is more effective compared to others), and engineered exosomes reduce oral cancer development. This therapeutic approach is effective because of its specificity, biocompatibility, and cell-free therapy (it reduced side effects in cancer treatment). This article highlights exosome-based theranostics signatures in oral cancer, clinical trials, challenges of exosome-based oral cancer research, and future improvements. In the future, exosomes may become an effective and affordable solution for oral cancer.