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Exosomes as Carriers for Drug Delivery in Cancer Therapy

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Abstract

Exosomes are extracellular vesicles secreted by cells with a particle size of 30–150 nm in diameter. Exosomes can be used as natural drug carriers. The treatment of cancer with drug-loaded exosomes is an area of high interest. This review introduces the composition, function, isolation and characterization of exosomes, and briefly describes the selection of exosome donor cells and methods for drug loading. Through studies on therapies with drug-loaded exosomes in gastric cancer, lung cancer, brain cancer and other cancers, the advantages and disadvantages of drug-loaded exosomes have been analyzed.

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Funding

This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31900976 and No. 32071360 to H.C.), by Research Starting Funding of South China University of Technology (D6181910, D6201880, K5180910, and K5204120 to Y.D.), by Research Agreement between South China University of Technology and Guangzhou First People’s Hospital (D9194290 to Y.D., ky13010037 to H.C.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biology and Biological Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, People’s Republic of China

    Weiping Zeng

  2. Laboratory of Stem Cells and Translational Medicine, Institutes for Life Sciences, School of Medicine, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, People’s Republic of China

    Weiping Zeng, Zhengbo Wen, Honglin Chen & Yuyou Duan

  3. National Engineering Research Center for Tissue Restoration and Reconstruction, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, People’s Republic of China

    Honglin Chen & Yuyou Duan

  4. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Biomedical Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, People’s Republic of China

    Honglin Chen & Yuyou Duan

  5. Key Laboratory of Biomedical Materials and Engineering of the Ministry of Education, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, People’s Republic of China

    Honglin Chen & Yuyou Duan

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  1. Weiping Zeng
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  2. Zhengbo Wen
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YD and HC designed and supervised the whole work. WZ wrote the paper, and YD, HC and ZW revised it. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Honglin Chen or Yuyou Duan.

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Zeng, W., Wen, Z., Chen, H. et al. Exosomes as Carriers for Drug Delivery in Cancer Therapy. Pharm Res 40, 873–887 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11095-022-03224-y

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