Abstract
Extracellular vesicles such as “exosomes” are secreted from various types of cells. Because of encapsulation of biologically functional molecules including miRNA and enzymes, the exosomes play crucial roles in cell–to–cell communications with heterogeneous contents of lipids, proteins, genes, and sugars, which are considered to be important in the cell–to–cell communications such as cellular uptake and biological control for recipient cells. In addition, the exosomes have been highly paid attention in disease diagnosis and drug delivery system as therapeutic tools. In this review, I introduce the basic science of exosomes including biological characters, mechanisms of secretion and cellular uptake, exosome–based disease diagnosis and therapy, and application in drug delivery system.
