Small extracellular vesicles as liquid biopsy targets and precision therapeutics for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease

Figure 4 Conceptual schematic of major engineering strategies for small extracellular vesicles. This conceptual schematic illustrates two major approaches for engineering small extracellular vesicles. A: Parental cells can be engineered through approaches such as genetic modification or plasmid transfection, enabling the resulting small extracellular vesicles to acquire desired therapeutic cargos or functions; B: After isolation, small extracellular vesicles can be further engineered through cargo loading and membrane surface modification. Therapeutic agents may be introduced by transiently altering membrane permeability, while targeting ligands can be conjugated to the vesicle membrane to enhance delivery specificity. sEV: Small extracellular vesicle.