Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Stem Cells. Nov 26, 2020; 12(11): 1276-1294
Published online Nov 26, 2020. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v12.i11.1276
Multifunctional role of microRNAs in mesenchymal stem cell-derived exosomes in treatment of diseases
Hui-Kang Xu, Li-Jun Chen, Si-Ning Zhou, Yi-Fei Li, Charlie Xiang
Hui-Kang Xu, Li-Jun Chen, Si-Ning Zhou, Yi-Fei Li, Charlie Xiang, State Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, National Clinical Research Center for Infectious Diseases, Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310003, Zhejiang Province, China
Author contributions: Xiang C designed the manuscript and approved the final manuscript for publication; Xu HK performed and wrote the manuscript; Chen LJ, Zhou SN, and Li YF collected the references and revised the manuscript.
Supported by The Zhejiang Key Research and Development Program, No. 2019C03015; the National Major Scientific and Technological Special Project for "Significant New Drugs Development" of China, No. 2018ZX09201002-005; and the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81900563.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Charlie Xiang, PhD, Director, Professor, State Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, National Clinical Research Center for Infectious Diseases, Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310003, Zhejiang Province, China. cxiang@zju.edu.cn
Received: June 21, 2020
Peer-review started: June 21, 2020
First decision: August 9, 2020
Revised: August 23, 2020
Accepted: September 18, 2020
Article in press: September 18, 2020
Published online: November 26, 2020
Processing time: 158 Days and 1.4 Hours
Abstract

Mesenchymal stem cells can be replaced by exosomes for the treatment of inflammatory diseases, injury repair, degenerative diseases, and tumors. Exosomes are small vesicles rich in a variety of nucleic acids [including messenger RNA, Long non-coding RNA, microRNA (miRNA), and circular RNA], proteins, and lipids. Exosomes can be secreted by most cells in the human body and are known to play a key role in the communication of information and material transport between cells. Like exosomes, miRNAs were neglected before their role in various activities of organisms was discovered. Several studies have confirmed that miRNAs play a vital role within exosomes. This review focuses on the specific role of miRNAs in MSC-derived exosomes (MSC-exosomes) and the methods commonly used by researchers to study miRNAs in exosomes. Taken together, miRNAs from MSC-exosomes display immense potential and practical value, both in basic medicine and future clinical applications, in treating several diseases.

Keywords: MicroRNA, Mesenchymal stem cells, Exosomes, Modulation of mesenchymal stem cells, Inflammatory diseases, Injury repair

Core Tip: Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-derived exosomes (MSC-exosomes) have obvious therapeutic effects on inflammation, organ damage, and tumors. Exosomes are membranes containing many substances, such as nucleic acids, proteins, and lipids. In many studies, microRNAs (miRNAs) have been found to be the core substance of therapeutic effect after exosomes are engulfed by cells. MiRNAs in exosomes secreted by different stem cells are diverse. In turn, different miRNAs target different genes to treat matched diseases. This point of view proves that miRNAs in MSC-exosomes have a broad research space.