Emerging Drug Delivery Vectors: Engineering of Plant-Derived Nanovesicles and Their Applications in Biomedicine

Abstract

Extracellular vesicles can transmit intercellular information and transport biomolecules to recipient cells during various pathophysiological processes in the organism. Animal cell exosomes have been identified as potential nanodrugs delivery vehicles, yet they have some shortcomings such as high immunogenicity, high cytotoxicity, and complicated preparation procedures. In addition to exosomes, plant-derived extracellular vesicles (PDVs), which carry a variety of active substances, are another promising nano-transport vehicles emerging in recent years due to their stable physicochemical properties, wide source, and low cost. This work briefly introduces the collection and characterization of PDVs, then focuses on the application of PDVs as natural or engineered drug carriers in biomedicine, and finally discusses the development and challenges of PDVs in future applications.

Keywords:

• plant-derived vesicles
• activated biomaterials
• nanodrugs delivery systems
• biomedicine applications

Acknowledgments

The authors are indebted to many scientists whose research results are cited here. This work was supported by the project funded by China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2023M731042) and Knowledge Innovation Project in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China (2023020201020472).

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.