Exosomal bioactive molecules: molecular regulation, functional heterogeneity, and translational implications in disease diagnostics and therapeutics.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Narrative review synthesizing mechanisms and clinical applications without original empirical data or systematic review methodology.
PubMed 41748937 · doi:10.1007/s10238-026-02092-9
What was done
This is a narrative review synthesizing literature on exosomal bioactive molecules, their biogenesis and cargo loading mechanisms (such as ESCRT complexes, lipid domains, and RNA-binding proteins), and their functional heterogeneity. It summarizes analytical and omics platforms for exosome profiling, examines their diagnostic utility as liquid biopsy biomarkers in cancer, metabolic, and neurodegenerative diseases, and reviews therapeutic applications of native and engineered exosomes for targeted drug delivery and tissue regeneration.
What was found
No quantitative findings, sample numbers, effect sizes, or specific diagnostic performance metrics (such as exact sensitivity or specificity values) are reported in the abstract. The review presents a qualitative synthesis of molecular pathways governing cargo sorting, summarizes potential diagnostic and therapeutic roles, and identifies key translational bottlenecks, including isolation standardization, cargo variability, targeting specificity, and regulatory challenges.
Why it matters
This paper consolidates basic extracellular vesicle biology with bioengineering and clinical applications, outlining how emerging tools like AI algorithms and synthetic mimetics may advance exosome-based precision medicine.
Limits
The review provides no new empirical data or systematic quantitative pooling. The abstract lacks specific diagnostic accuracy statistics and clinical trial outcome metrics. Major translational hurdles—such as protocol standardization, production scalability, and in vivo targeting precision—remain unresolved barriers.
Cited by
- supports Exosomes are extracellular vesicles released by cells that contain proteins, RNA molecules, lipids, and metabolites, and they circulate in large numbers in the blood.