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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Stem Cells. Aug 26, 2025; 17(8): 109006
Published online Aug 26, 2025. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v17.i8.109006
Mesenchymal stem cell-derived exosomes: Shaping the next era of Alzheimer’s disease treatment
Xiao-Qian Shan, Mei-Heng He, Wei-Li Gao, Yu-Jiao Li, Shu-Zhen Liu, Yan Liu, Chao-Li Wang, Lan Zhao, Shi-Xin Xu
Xiao-Qian Shan, Mei-Heng He, Wei-Li Gao, Yu-Jiao Li, Shu-Zhen Liu, Yan Liu, Chao-Li Wang, Lan Zhao, Shi-Xin Xu, First Teaching Hospital of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, National Clinical Research Center for Chinese Medicine Acupuncture and Moxibustion, Tianjin 300381, China
Co-corresponding authors: Lan Zhao and Shi-Xin Xu.
Author contributions: Shan XQ contributed to the conceptualization, writing -review and editing of this manuscript; He MH, Gao WL, Li YJ, Liu SZ, Liu Y, Wang CL assistant to this manuscript; Zhao L and Xu SX contributed to supervision, they contributed equally to this manuscript and are co-corresponding authors.
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 82074533.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Lan Zhao, PhD, Research Fellow, First Teaching Hospital of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, National Clinical Research Center for Chinese Medicine Acupuncture and Moxibustion, No. 88 Changling Road, Xiqing District, Tianjin 300381, China. lanzhao69@163.com
Received: April 28, 2025
Revised: June 6, 2025
Accepted: July 28, 2025
Published online: August 26, 2025
Processing time: 115 Days and 16.6 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Mesenchymal stem cell-derived exosomes represent a promising therapeutic modality for Alzheimer’s disease, owing to their biological functions and biocompatibility. Mesenchymal stem cell-derived exosomes facilitate the clearance of β-amyloid by carrying degradative enzymes, modulate neuroinflammation, and promote neurorestoration. While preclinical and clinical data are encouraging, challenges such as production standardization, safety, and long-term efficacy remain. Strategies like exosome functionalization, targeting optimization, gene editing, and synthetic exosomes may enhance therapeutic potential and accelerate clinical translation.