Exosome and Other Extracellular Vesicles for Cardiovascular Diseases

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) continue to pose a major global threat in mortality and morbidity due to complex heart challenges. Despite the progressive and significant advancements in the medical sciences, there still remains a substantial CVD risk for the unmet need for improved treatment options. The multifaceted interplay of various factors such as genetic predisposition, lifestyle choices and systemic inflammation has made the treatment of CVD a daunting task. However, due to its complexity, the conventional diagnostic and therapeutic approaches sometime fail in providing a comprehensive view of disease progression and response to the treatment. As an outcome, exosomes and extracellular vesicles (EVs) have gained prominence in CVDs due to their potential as cellular messengers, offering the possibility of serving as nonintrusive diagnostic biomarker tool and also as therapeutic nanocarriers. Within the cardio vasculature, various cells such as the CMs, vascular smooth cells, inflammatory cells, fibroblasts, and the stem cells are associated with maintaining the homeostasis (cardiac) by releasing exosomes. Exosomes have the potential to encapsulate miRNA that fluctuates in the pathophysiological response which ultimately indicates the pathways and can be incorporated as novel targets for the treatment procedures. While the potential of exosomes and EVs in CVDs is promising, much research is still needed to fully understand their mechanisms and optimize their clinical applications. This chapter deals with all the recent development in application of exosome and EVs as biomarkers and also as treatment procedures for CVDs.