Exosomes in Cardiovascular Diseases

Yao-Hua Song, Lianbo Shao, Yu Zhang, Jin Zhou, Bin Liu, Xiangbin Pan, Yong-jian Geng, Xi-yong Yu, Yangxin Li

Cardiovascular diseases resulting from ischemic heart diseases remain to be the main causes of heart failure and death despite significant advances in medical treatment. The development of new therapies for heart failure is thus required to improve the outcome in these patients, and this has led to the development of cell-based therapies. Animal studies showed interesting results using various cell types. Some stem cell based therapies have been tested in clinical trials. Although the results were encouraging, challenges remain. Tumorigenic potential, immune rejection, and low engraftment and survival rate of transplant cells have hindered the widespread application of stem cells in the clinic. Fortunately, exosome based therapy could avoid these problems associated with cell therapy. Future research should focus on how various molecules are sorted into exosomes and this information will help to design better exosomes for treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Recent studies suggest that exosome content can vary depending on how cells are challenged. It would be important to find out exactly what types of cellular stress is needed for producing most useful exosomes. Alternatively, specific molecules can be introduced into exosomes by genetic engineering in order to treat specific conditions and to improve efficacy.