One of many types of extracellular vesicles (EVs), exosomes are nanovesicle structures that are released by almost all living cells that can perform a wide range of critical biological functions. Exosomes play important roles in both normal and pathological conditions by regulating cell-cell communication in cancer, angiogenesis, cellular differentiation, osteogenesis, and inflammation. Exosomes are stable in vivo and they can regulate biological processes by transferring lipids, proteins, nucleic acids, and even entire signaling pathways through the circulation to cells at distal sites. Recent advances in the identification, production, and purification of exosomes have created opportunities to exploit these structures as novel drug delivery systems, modulators of cell signaling, mediators of antigen presentation, as well as biological targeting agents and diagnostic tools in cancer therapy. This review will examine the functions of immunocyte-derived exosomes and their roles in the immune response under physiological and pathological conditions. The use of immunocyte exosomes in immunotherapy and vaccine development is discussed.

Manganese dioxide (MnO 2 )-based nanoparticles are a promising tumor microenvironment-responsive nanotheranostic carrier for targeted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and for alleviating tumor hypoxia. However, the complexity and potential toxicity of the present common synthesis methods limit their clinical application. Herein, multifunctional hyaluronic acid-MnO 2 nanoparticles (HA-MnO 2 NPs) are synthesized in a simple way by directly mixing sodium permanganate with HA aqueous solutions, which serve as both a reducing agent and a surface-coating material. The obtained HA-MnO 2 NPs show an improved water-dispersibility, fine colloidal stability, low toxicity, and responsiveness to the tumor microenvironment (high H 2 O 2 and high glutathione, low pH). After intravenous injection, HA-MnO 2 NPs exhibit a high imaging sensitivity for detecting rat intracranial glioma with MRI for a prolonged period of up to 3 d. These nanoparticles also effectively alleviate the tumor hypoxia in a rat model of intracranial glioma. The downregulation of VEGF and HIF-1α expression in intracranial glioma validates the sustained attenuation effect of HA-MnO 2 NPs on tumor hypoxia. These results show that HA-MnO 2 NPs can be used for sensitive, targeted MRI detection of gliomas and simultaneous attenuation of tumor hypoxia. Cancer TheranosticsThe ORCID identification number(s) for the author(s) of this article can be found under https://doi.

Resveratrol (RES) is a polyphenol phytoalexin from plants, which has been reported to possess a variety of biological effects. The properties of RES on human natural killer (NK) cells were assessed in this study. Results showed that RES has concentration-dependent biphasic effects on NK cells. In high concentration (50 μM), RES can inhibit viability and promoted apoptosis of NK cells and human lymphoblastoid T (Jurkat) cells, which may affect the caspase signaling pathway. The Jurkat cells were more sensitive than NK cells on the RES caused cell death. However, when the concentration range reduced from 3.13 to 1.56 μM, RES showed the positive effects on NK cells by increasing the NK cells cytotoxicity via up-regulating the expression of NKG2D and IFN-γ (in mRNA and protein levels). These results indicated that one needs to pay more attention to the dosage and biphasic effects when RES was applied as antitumor drugs or health products.

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Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are a class of cell-derived, lipid bilayer membrane composed vesicles, and some of them such as exosomes and ectosomes have been proven, playing remarkable roles in transmitting intercellular information, and being involved in each property of cell physiological activities. Nowadays, EVs are considered as potential nanocarriers which could partially resolve the problems of current chemotherapy because of their distinctive advantages. As endogenous membrane encompassed vesicles with nanosize, EVs are able to pass through the natural barriers with prolonged circulation time in vivo and have intrinsic cell targeting properties, they are less toxic, and less immunogenic. Recently, studies focusing on EV-based drug delivery system for cancer therapy have exploded dramatically. This review aims to outline the current applications of EVs as potential nanosized drug carriers in cancer therapy. Firstly, the characteristics and biofunctions of each EV subtype are described. Then the variety of therapeutic cargoes, the loading methods, and the targeting strategy of engineered EVs are emphatically introduced. Thereafter the pros and cons of EVs applied as therapeutic carriers, as well as the future prospects in this field, are discussed.