Synergistic integration of extracellular vesicles and metal-organic frameworks: unlocking new opportunities in disease diagnosis and therapy.

Abstract

The combination of extracellular vesicles (EVs) and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) is a cutting-edge strategy in nanomedicine, leveraging the immune evasion, targeting capabilities, and biocompatibility of EVs with the high loading capacity and tunable functionality of MOFs. This review comprehensively discusses the latest advancements in the EV-MOF collaborative system, including its combined form and preparation process, focusing on its synergistic applications in disease diagnosis and treatment. EV-MOF platforms have demonstrated enhanced sensitivity in biosensing and bioimaging, offering new avenues for early cancer detection using signal amplification and fluorescence imaging technologies. Therapeutically, EV-MOF systems have demonstrated significant promise in drug delivery, cancer treatment, rheumatoid arthritis, ulcerative colitis, wound healing, bone regeneration, and anti-infection applications, delivering targeted therapies with controlled drug release, and improved biocompatibility. Despite these advancements, challenges remain in optimizing the binding methods between EVs and MOFs, ensuring their stability, and understanding their in vivo mechanisms. Addressing these may be key to unlocking the full clinical potential of EV-MOF systems. This review provides a critical analysis of the current state of research, offering insights and guidance for future exploration in this rapidly evolving field.