ABSTRACT
The clinical translation of siRNA therapeutics has been stalled by the lack of efficient, specific, and safe delivery vehicles. Exosomes have emerged as a promising tool to overcome the hurdles of siRNA delivery, owing to their unique composition, potential targeting capacity, intrinsic ability to traverse biological barriers, and excellent biocompatibility. In addition, exosomes could be functionalized with a wide array of targeting ligands for specific cell recognition. Furthermore, bioinspired exosome-like nanoparticles may be created to capitalize on the beneficial features of exosomes while circumventing some of their hurdles, such as considerable complexity, low production yield, and difficulty in siRNA loading. In this chapter, we briefly describe the composition and siRNA loading approaches of exosomes. Moreover, we provide an updated overview of new findings in efforts to harness native exosomes, functionalized exosomes, and bioinspired exosome-like nanovehicles for siRNA delivery.
