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Review
. 2022 Oct 18:13:1026386.
doi: 10.3389/fphar.2022.1026386. eCollection 2022.

Platelets and platelet extracellular vesicles in drug delivery therapy: A review of the current status and future prospects

Zhanqiu Dai  1   2 , Tingxiao Zhao  1 , Nan Song  3 , Kaifeng Pan  4   5 , Yang Yang  4   5 , Xunbin Zhu  2 , Pengfei Chen  4   5 , Jun Zhang  1 , Chen Xia  1   4   5
Affiliations
Review

Platelets and platelet extracellular vesicles in drug delivery therapy: A review of the current status and future prospects

Zhanqiu Dai et al. Front Pharmacol. .

Abstract

Platelets are blood cells that are primarily produced by the shedding of megakaryocytes in the bone marrow. Platelets participate in a variety of physiological and pathological processes in vivo, including hemostasis, thrombosis, immune-inflammation, tumor progression, and metastasis. Platelets have been widely used for targeted drug delivery therapies for treating various inflammatory and tumor-related diseases. Compared to other drug-loaded treatments, drug-loaded platelets have better targeting, superior biocompatibility, and lower immunogenicity. Drug-loaded platelet therapies include platelet membrane coating, platelet engineering, and biomimetic platelets. Recent studies have indicated that platelet extracellular vesicles (PEVs) may have more advantages compared with traditional drug-loaded platelets. PEVs are the most abundant vesicles in the blood and exhibit many of the functional characteristics of platelets. Notably, PEVs have excellent biological efficacy, which facilitates the therapeutic benefits of targeted drug delivery. This article provides a summary of platelet and PEVs biology and discusses their relationships with diseases. In addition, we describe the preparation, drug-loaded methods, and specific advantages of platelets and PEVs targeted drug delivery therapies for treating inflammation and tumors. We summarize the hot spots analysis of scientific articles on PEVs and provide a research trend, which aims to give a unique insight into the development of PEVs research focus.

Keywords: drug-loaded; inflammation; platelet extracellular vesicles; platelets; targeted drug delivery; tumors.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Flow chart of the isolation of platelets from whole blood. Illustration of platelets participation in physiological and pathological processes, including tissue injury, tumor development and metastasis, and inflammation.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Platelet-based drug delivery systems could be categorized into three types: 1) platelet membrane coating; 2) platelet engineering, including platelet hitchhiking and electroporation; 3) Biomimetic platelets.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Application of Platelet Extracellular Vesicles (PEVs) as Drug-Loaded Delivery Systems. (A) Transmission electron microscope images of Platelets and (B) PEVs. Scale bar = 1 µm, 100 nm. (C) After activation or other processes, platelets shed PEVs, which inherit membrane properties from the parental platelets. PEVs can be loaded with drugs by the application of various procedures (such as precipitation, sonication, extrusion, electroporation, and so on) and used as targeted drug delivery systems.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Keyword analysis. (A) Network visualization map showing cluster analysis of keywords associated with platelets extracellular vesicles. Different colors represent different clusters, green for “vesicle secretion mechanism” cluster, red for “biological function” cluster, blue for “methods and omics” cluster, purple for “pathophysiology” cluster, and yellow for “clinical diseases” cluster. (B) Network visualization map showing evolution of keyword frequency over time. Colors were assigned according to the average year in which keywords appeared in articles.
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