Lipid Bilayer Exosome–mediated Disease Diagnosis and Treatment Utilizing Exosomes

Exosomes are lipid bilayer vesicles, which are secreted outside of the cells. Exosomes have a size of 40～200 nm in diameters. Exosomes contain miRNAs, mRNAs, proteins and DNAs, and transfer their contents to other cells. Exosomes are expected to be useful and effective cancer biomarker, because exosomes are detected in body fluids, and because molecules contained in exosomes reflect the components of originated cells. In addition, exosomes may be able to apply to novel therapeutic strategies. In this review, we explain the basic characteristics of exosomes and recent advances in diagnostics and therapeutics using exosomes.