Mesenchymal stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles as next generation drug delivery platforms

Table 1 Comparative summary of mesenchymal stem cell-derived extracellular vesicle cargo loading strategies

Loading strategy	Typical efficiency	Advantages	Limitations	Clinical feasibility	Representative applications	Ref.
Passive loading (incubation)	Approximately 5%-10%	Simple, preserves EV integrity	Low loading efficiency	Moderate (small molecules)	Paclitaxel loading	[49]
Electroporation	Approximately 15%-25%	Effective for nucleic acids	RNA aggregation risk	Moderate	siRNA delivery	[72]
Sonication	Approximately 20%-30%	High encapsulation efficiency	Membrane damage risk	Moderate	Chemotherapy drugs	[49]
Extrusion	Approximately 15%-25%	Uniform vesicle formation	Structural alteration	Moderate	Drug loading	[84]
Genetic engineering	High cargo specificity	Stable loading	Regulatory complexity	High potential	miRNA delivery	[85]
Surface functionalization	Not direct loading	Improved targeting	Immune response risk	High potential	Targeted therapy	[83]

EV: Extracellular vesicle; siRNA: Small interfering RNA; miRNA: MicroRNA.