Dendritic Cell-Derived Exosomes: Next Generation of Cancer Immunotherapy

Dendritic cells (DCs) are the most highlighted cell population for cancer immunotherapy development. Currently, DC-derived exosomes show promising anti-cancer activity. Exosomes are a subpopulation of extracellular vesicles (EVs) and originate from endosomes. It transports dynamic molecular cargos such as DNA, RNA, protein, and lipid. This cellular cargo exchange reprograms the recipient cell naturally. In cancer research, DC-derived exosomes (DEXs) are used as a therapeutic tool. There are some approaches followed in the application of DEX in cancer as a therapeutic tool. DEX-based drug delivery, tumor antigen-loaded DEX, and modified DEX are applicable approaches in cancer therapy. DEXs are biocompatible, nontoxic, and have ability-specific targeting. On the other hand, this method faces some challenges, such as large-scale production, isolation, and heterogeneity. A multidisciplinary approach (advanced nanotechnology, multi-omics, and single-exosome profiling) comes up with a solution to this issue. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the DEX approach, tracing its developmental journey and therapeutic application in cancer immunotherapy. It examines key findings from clinical trials and outlines the challenges and future research directions in this field, ultimately underscoring the potential of DC-derived exosomes as a research-backed, cell-free solution for the next generation of cancer immunotherapies.

• Publication year

  2025

• Venue

  Biomedicines

• Publication date

  2025-10-01

• Fields of study

  Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.3390/biomedicines13102497PMID 41153781PMCID 12561574
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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