A research team led by Professor Li Zongjin in the School of Medicine at Nankai University, designed and prepared an engineered extracellular vesicle targeting specifically at injured endothelial cells. This engineered extracellular vesicle, which targets P-selectin, a surface marker on injured endothelial cells, can carry and deliver the therapeutic functional molecules to the kidney that suffered the ischemic injury, and indicate the extent of kidney injury through the imaging molecules it carries, thereby achieving early diagnosis and targeted treatment of acute kidney injury. This study fills a gap in the early diagnosis and targeted therapy of acute kidney injury, and is expected to provide novel ideas for the subsequent research and clinical application of targeted therapy for endothelial cell injury diseases. The findings entitled “Renal Endothelial Cell-Targeted Extracellular Vesicles Protect the Kidney from Ischemic Injury” were published in Wiley’s Advanced Science journal as the cover story. 

Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of the therapeutic strategy of applying engineered extracellular vesicles to the diagnosis and treatment of acute kidney injury

Fig. 2 Cover image of the journal publishing the paper

Zhang Kaiyue, a doctoral candidate at Nankai University, is the first author of this paper, and Professor Li Zongjin is the corresponding author. The work was done under the guidance of Professor Chen Xiangmei, an expert in nephrology and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

Link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/advs.202204626