Bacterial extracellular vesicles as bioactive nanocarriers for drug delivery: Advances and perspectives

Nanosized extracellular vesicles derived from bacteria contain diverse cargo and transfer intercellular bioactive molecules to cells. Due to their favorable intercellular interactions, cell membrane-derived bacterial extracellular vesicles (BEVs) have great potential to become novel drug delivery platforms. In this review, we summarize the biogenesis mechanism and compositions of various BEVs. In addition, an overview of effective isolation and purification techniques of BEVs is provided. In particular, we focus on the application of BEVs as bioactive nanocarriers for drug delivery. Finally, we summarize the advances and challenges of BEVs after providing a comprehensive discussion in each section. We believe that a deeper understanding of BEVs will open new avenues for their exploitation in drug delivery applications. [Display omitted] •Bacterial extracellular vesicles (BEVs) are excellent nanomaterials as drug delivery systems.•The unique nanosized structures and biofunctions of BEVs are attractive for their use as nanomedicine platforms.•BEVs have been investigated as biotherapeutics due to their loading capacity, ease of modification and industrialization.•This review provides new insights of BEVs in drug delivery applications, discussing potential opportunities and challenges.