Extracellular vesicles for the treatment of central nervous system diseases

The interest in extracellular vesicles (EVs) increased during the last decade. It is now established that these vesicles play a role in the pathogenesis of central nervous system diseases (CNS), which explains why they are studied as biomarkers in these pathologies. On the other hand, EVs can also present therapeutic properties, often similar to their parent cells, as observed with mesenchymal stem cell-derived EVs. They can then be used as therapeutics, alone or combined with a bioactive molecule, for the treatment of CNS diseases, as they can cross the blood–brain barrier more easily than synthetic nanomedicines and are less immunogenic. A few clinical trials are currently on-going but there are still challenges to overcome for further clinical translation such as the scale-up of the production, the lack of standardization for isolation and characterization methods and the low encapsulation efficiency.