Prospective Therapeutic Applications of Platelet Extracellular Vesicles

There is much interest in the use of extracellular vesicles (EVs) as a subcellular therapy for regenerative medicine and drug delivery. Blood-borne platelets represent a source of therapeutic EVs that is so far largely unexplored. Advantages of platelets as a cellular source of EVs include their established clinical value, regulated collection procedures, availability in a concentrated form, propensity to generate EVs, and unique composition and tissue-targeting capacity. This review analyzes the unique potential of platelet-derived (p-) EVs as therapeutic modalities and presents their inherent translational advantages for hemostasis, for regenerative medicine, and as drug-delivery vehicles. Researchers in academic fields and the cell therapy and biotechnology industries have a great interest in the translational potential of EVs (see Glossary), which, as described by the International Society of Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV) is 'a collective term covering various subtypes of cell-released, membranous structures, called exosomes, microvesicles, microparticles, ectosomes, oncosomes, and apoptotic bodies', among others [1]. These heterogeneous cell-derived vesicles are 'delimited by a