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Extracellular vesicles versus synthetic nanoparticles for drug delivery

Nature Reviews Materials volume 6, pages 103–106 (2021)Cite this article

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Cell-released biological nanoparticles, that is, extracellular vesicles (EVs), are emerging drug carriers with high complexity. EV-based drug delivery exploits intrinsic mechanisms for molecular transport in the body. Integrating EV biology and manufacturing with clinical insights from synthetic nanoparticles is likely to substantially advance the field of drug delivery.

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Fig. 1: Characteristics of free drugs, clinically approved synthetic nanoparticles and extracellular vesicles.

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Acknowledgements

This work is partially supported by the Mayo Clinic Center for Regenerative Medicine in Florida (J.W.), the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health (NIH), United States under award numbers R21AI152318 (J.W.) and R01AI144997 (K.W.W.), and the NIH Common Fund through the Office of Strategic Coordination/Office of the NIH Director under award number UG3CA241694 (K.W.W.). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funding agencies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular and Comparative Pathobiology, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Kenneth W. Witwer

  2. Department of Neurology, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Kenneth W. Witwer

  3. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL, USA

    Joy Wolfram

  4. Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL, USA

    Joy Wolfram

  5. Department of Nanomedicine, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX, USA

    Joy Wolfram

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Correspondence to Kenneth W. Witwer or Joy Wolfram.

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Witwer, K.W., Wolfram, J. Extracellular vesicles versus synthetic nanoparticles for drug delivery. Nat Rev Mater 6, 103–106 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-020-00277-6

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