Research progress of tumor‐derived extracellular vesicles in the treatment of malignant pleural effusion

Abstract

Vesicles, also known as “microparticles”, are vesicle‐like structures that are released outside the cell in a “sprouting” manner when the cytoskeleton is changed during cell activation or apoptosis, with a diameter of about 100–1000 nm, and are carriers of material information exchange between cells. Tumor‐derived extracellular vesicles can effectively deliver drugs to the nucleus of tumor stem cells, thus effectively killing them without toxic side effects. The underlying mechanism involves the soft nature of tumor stem cells that allows better uptake of vesicles, and the entry of drug‐carrying vesicles into lysosomes and facilitation of lysosomal movement toward the nucleus to deliver drugs to the nucleus. Drug‐loaded vesicles have unique advantages, such as low immunogenicity, homing targeting ability, and the ability to break through the physiological barrier to tumor therapy. Tumor‐derived drug‐delivery vesicles have entered clinical trials for the treatment of malignant pleural effusions. In this review, we summarized the progress of basic and clinical research on tumor cell‐derived drug‐loaded vesicles for the treatment of malignant pleural effusion in recent years.

Challenges and Opportunities for Extracellular Vesicles in Clinical Oncology Therapy

“…Tumor immunotherapy is an effective strategy for tumor control that efficiently treats malignant pleural effusion by mobilizing the maximum number of neutrophils in the body, highlighting the special features of drug-loaded vesicles in tumor immunotherapy. The most recent clinical trial showed promising results in the treatment of malignant ascites, indicating that drug-loaded T-MPs are universally effective in treating clinical malignant pleural effusion [ 52 , 69 ].…”