Neural Regeneration Research ›› 2022, Vol. 17 ›› Issue (5): 1020-1022.doi: 10.4103/1673-5374.324846

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The emerging world of subcellular biological medicine: extracellular vesicles as novel biomarkers, targets, and therapeutics

Leon G. Coleman, Jr*   

  1. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Medicine, Department of Pharmacology, Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
  • Online:2022-05-15 Published:2021-11-08
  • Contact: Leon G. Coleman, Jr, MD, PhD, leon_coleman@med.unc.edu.
  • Supported by:
    This work was supported by National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism AA024829, AA028924, AA028599 and the Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies (all to LGC).

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic, with all its tragedy, has also ushered in a new era of biological medicine. This global crisis has brought along with it an opportunity that had not been foreseen by many – it brought the therapeutic use of subcellular biological material to the forefront of medicine. Though clinical trials for certain biological therapeutics began more than 15 years ago, in many nations there has been public hesitation to these approaches. With this shift of public thought, there will likely be many more similar therapeutic efforts in days ahead. In the case of the pioneering COVID-19 vaccines, mRNA was used as medicine for this inflammatory pathology. Further, the use of lipid delivery systems for these mRNA vaccines has opened the eyes of many regarding new possibilities for biological therapeutics and delivery systems. Within the body during normal physiology, such endogenous delivery systems are continuously operating. These extracellular vesicles (EVs) are lipid-enclosed transport systems that allow continuous communication between cells and organ systems. EVs transport diverse biological cargo such mRNAs, miRNAs, DNA, histones, long non-coding RNAs, proteins, bio-active lipids, and more. Previously considered to be inactive, not physiological, EVs have now emerged as critical mediators in a variety of biological processes and disease states (Jeppesen et al., 2019). As such, much interest has emerged for using EVs not only as disease biomarkers, but also as biological drug delivery systems or even as direct treatments themselves. Disease states with inflammatory components in particular have been studied for the involvement of EVs. Like the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, EVs represent a new dimension of subcellular biological medicine.