Application of Cell Membrane Vesicles in Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment

Abstract Application of nanoparticles in cancer diagnosis and treatment has gained much attention in the past decade. Because of the advantages of cargo protection, targeting delivery, controlled release, and so on, nanoparticles are widely applied in cancer therapies. However, bare nanoparticles prove not potent enough. Obstacles of immune rejection, low targeting rate, and insufficient circulation time limit the application of bare nanoparticles against cancer. Therefore, inspired by surface modification, invention of cell membrane coating technology has solved the above problems. Nanoparticles camouflaged in cell membranes not only improve biocompatibility, but also benefit from weak immunogenicity, homotypic fusion, prolonged circulation time, and other specialized properties bestowed by source cells accordingly. Through combination of cell membrane vesicles and other novel techniques, innovative methods of cancer diagnosis and treatment are feasible. Here recent advances in cell membrane coating technology are discussed. Apart from introducing methodology of cell membrane vesicle fabrication and characterization, examples of cell membrane vesicle with diverse source cells are given to present specialized application properties. A proposition of constructing donor cell database and cell membrane vesicle bank is presented to counter the current challenges in clinical application.