Technology insight: Plant-derived vesicles—How far from the clinical biotherapeutics and therapeutic drug carriers?

[Display omitted] •Plant extracellular vesicles (EVs) and exosome-like nanoparticles (ELNs) should be distinguished and scientifically defined.•The timeline and evolution of plant EVs and ELNs were presented for the first time.•ELNs have broad prospects as biological therapeutics and drug carriers.•The preparation, characterization and activity evaluation of ELNs are the primary tasks at present. Within the past decades, extracellular vesicles (EVs) have emerged as important mediators of intercellular communication in both prokaryotes and higher eukaryotes to regulate a diverse range of biological processes. Besides EVs, exosome-like nanoparticles (ELNs) derived from plants were also emerging. Comparing to EVs, ELNs are source-widespread, cost-effective and easy to obtain. Their definite activities can be utilized for potential prevention/treatment of an abundance of diseases, including metabolic syndrome, cancer, colitis, alcoholic hepatitis and infectious diseases, which highlights ELNs as promising biotherapeutics. In addition, the potential of ELNs as natural or engineered drug carriers is also attractive. In this review, we tease out the timeline of plant EVs and ELNs, introduce the arising separation, purification and characterization techniques, state the stability and transport manner, discuss the therapeutic opportunities as well as the potential as novel drug carriers. Finally, the challenges and the direction of efforts to realize the clinical transformation of ELNs are also discussed.