Tianjin Medical Journal ›› 2025, Vol. 53 ›› Issue (10): 1115-1120.doi: 10.11958/20252450

• Review • Previous Articles    

Research progress of dendritic cell exosomes as vaccine carriers

XU Tong1(), ZHANG Wei2, LIU Yonghui2,()   

  1. 1 First Teaching Hospital of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, National Clinical Research Center for Chinese Medicine Acupuncture and Moxibustion, Tianjin 300073, China
    2 School of Chemistry, Tiangong University
  • Received:2025-07-09 Revised:2025-07-23 Published:2025-10-15 Online:2025-10-12
  • Contact: E-mail:liuyonghui@tiangong.edu.cn

Abstract:

Tumor vaccines face challenges such as low antigen delivery efficiency and significant side effects of carriers in stimulating specific anti-tumor immunity. Dendritic cell-derived exosomes (Dex), as endogenous nanovesicles, provide a new strategy for the development of novel vaccine carriers due to their excellent biocompatibility, targeted delivery capability and the ability to load intrinsic immune-active molecules. Dex can efficiently deliver tumor antigens, directly activate T, B and NK cells or indirectly promote antigen cross-presentation, and reshape the immune-suppressive microenvironment, thereby triggering a potent anti-tumor immune response. Studies have shown that Dex-based vaccines exhibit significant effects in inhibiting tumor growth and prolonging survival in models such as hepatocellular carcinoma and melanoma. This review summarizes the biological properties of Dex, its advantages as a vaccine carrier and the research progress in different tumor immunotherapies, aiming to provide references and ideas for further research on Dex in the field of vaccine carriers and to promote breakthroughs in its clinical application.

Key words: dendritic cells, exosomes, immunotherapy, tumor vaccine, anti-tumor immunity, vaccine carrier

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