Clinical translation
Preclinical data and first clinical data indicate that EVs, especially those derived from mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), show great potential as therapeutic active agents in tissue regeneration and immune response modulation (immunotherapy).
Despite these promising findings, the translation of preclinical results into a clinical application of EVs proves to be difficult. Several hurdles that need to be tackled in order to exploit fully the therapeutic potential of EV-based drugs in the future have been identified [5]. There is a great heterogeneity in study design, cell culture conditions and specific EV and cell isolations that are used in the different studies. Evidently, recent research has focused on the exploration of the therapeutic potential of EV in experimental and pre-clinical settings, and only little attention has been attributed to translational research.
Aware of this gap, our consortium feels that now is the time to lift the promising pre-clinical results to the next level, for which a next generation of entrepreneurial, translational and state-of-the-art scientists needs to take the stage.