Exosome Therapeutics Are Paving a Path to Clinical Readiness
www.biospace.com
March 11, 2024, 7:03 p.m.
Experts are divided on whether or not exosomes are ready to be used as therapeutics. Theresa Whiteside, a professor of immunology at the University of Pittsburgh who studies the use of exosomes as tumor biomarkers, does not believe exosome-based therapeutics are ready for clinical study. “We have no idea what regulates [exosome biology],” Whiteside told BioSpace. “At the moment, it's a confusing picture.” In the other camp, Sharanjot Saini, an associate professor in the department of biochemistry and molecular biology at Augusta University, is using exosomes to deliver drugs for neuroendocrine prostate cancer. Exosomes engineered by Saini’s lab to specifically deliver two drugs to the prostate “significantly” reduced tumor growth in mouse studies. Saini told BioSpace that if initial safety and toxicity tests are conducted with rigor, there is nothing standing in the way of using exosomes as therapeutics.