Exosome-based drug delivery systems in cancer therapy

Exosome, which is a kind of extracellular vesicles with size around 40-160 nm, plays an important role in cell-to-cell communication in multiple diseases. Especially in tumor microenvironment, exosomes are the important pathway to transit proteins, nucleic acids and small molecules between different kinds of cells. Based on these characteristics, exosomes are served as both therapeutic agents and drug delivery systems in cancer therapy. In this review, the applications of exosomes as drug delivery systems in cancer therapy were summarized and classified according to the cell source of the exosomes, including normal cells, immune cells and tumor cells. Different modifications of exosomes and drug loading methods were presented. Finally, some challenges that hindered the clinical translation of exosomes were also discussed. Exosomes derived from different cell sources as drug delivery systems for loading small molecules, nucleic acids and proteins in cancer therapy are summarized and highlighted.