Plant-Derived Extracellular Vesicles and Their Exciting Potential as the Future of Next-Generation Drug Delivery.

Plant cells release tiny membranous vesicles called extracellular vesicles (EVs), which are rich in lipids, proteins, nucleic acids, and pharmacologically active compounds. These plant-derived EVs (PDEVs) are safe and easily extractable and have been shown to have therapeutic effects against inflammation, cancer, bacteria, and aging. They have shown promise in preventing or treating colitis, cancer, alcoholic liver disease, and even COVID-19. PDEVs can also be used as natural carriers for small-molecule drugs and nucleic acids through various administration routes such as oral, transdermal, or injection. The unique advantages of PDEVs make them highly competitive in clinical applications and preventive healthcare products in the future. This review covers the latest methods for isolating and characterizing PDEVs, their applications in disease prevention and treatment, and their potential as a new drug carrier, with special attention to their commercial viability and toxicological profile, as the future of nanomedicine therapeutics. This review champions the formation of a new task force specializing in PDEVs to address a global need for rigor and standardization in PDEV research.

Cell-derived membrane biomimetic nanocarriers for targeted therapy of pulmonary disease.

Pulmonary diseases are currently one of the major threats of human health, especially considering the recent COVID-19 pandemic. However, the current treatments are facing the challenges like insufficient local drug concentrations, the fast lung clearance and risks to induce unexpected inflammation. Cell-derived membrane biomimetic nanocarriers are recently emerged delivery strategy, showing advantages of long circulation time, excellent biocompatibility and immune escape ability. In this review, applications of using cell-derived membrane biomimetic nanocarriers from diverse cell sources for the targeted therapy of pulmonary disease were summarized. In addition, improvements of the cell-derived membrane biomimetic nanocarriers for augmented therapeutic ability against different kinds of pulmonary diseases were introduced. This review is expected to provide a general guideline for the potential applications of cell-derived membrane biomimetic nanocarriers to treat pulmonary diseases.

DEAE-chitosan nanoparticles as a pneumococcus-biomimetic material for the development of antipneumococcal therapeutics.

Advanced biomaterials provide an interesting and versatile platform to implement new and more effective strategies to fight bacterial infections. Chitosan is one of these biopolymers and possesses relevant features for biomedical applications. Here we synthesized nanoparticles of chitosan derivatized with diethylaminoethyl groups (ChiDENPs) to emulate the choline residues in the pneumococcal cell wall and act as ligands for choline-binding proteins (CBPs). Firstly, we assessed the ability of diethylaminoethyl (DEAE) to sequester the CBPs present in the bacterial surface, thus promoting chain formation. Secondly, the CBP-binding ability of ChiDENPs was purposed to encapsulate a bio-active molecule, the antimicrobial enzyme Cpl-711 (ChiDENPs-711), with improved stability over non-derivatized chitosan. The enzyme-loaded system released more than 90% of the active enzybiotic in ≈ 2 h, above the usual in vivo half-life of this kind of enzymes. Therefore, ChiDENPs provide a promising platform for the controlled release of CBP-enzybiotics in biological contexts.

Mesenchymal stem cell alongside exosomes as a novel cell-based therapy for COVID-19: A review study.

In the past year, an emerging disease called Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has been discovered in Wuhan, China, which has become a worrying pandemic and has challenged the world health system and economy. SARS-CoV-2 enters the host cell through a specific receptor (Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2) expressed on epithelial cells of various tissues. The virus, by inducing cell apoptosis and production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, generates as cytokine storm, which is the major cause of mortality in the patients. This type of response, along with responses by other immune cell, such as alveolar macrophages and neutrophils causes extensive damage to infected tissue. Newly, a novel cell-based therapy by Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) as well as by their exosomes has been developed for treatment of COVID-19 that yielded promising outcomes. In this review study, we discuss the characteristics and benefits of MSCs therapy as well as MSC-secreted exosome therapy in treatment of COVID-19 patients.