Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are naturally secreted as non-cell-autonomous signals involved in regulating immune responses, aging, angiogenesis, and tissue injury and repair within the central nervous system (CNS). Consequently, EVs have emerged as promising therapeutic targets in CNS-related diseases. More recently, a subset of these vesicles has been found to contain mitochondria (mitoEVs), suggesting that vesicles carrying mitochondrial signatures may also function as non-cell-autonomous signals and serve as potential biomarkers for injury or recovery in CNS pathophysiology. In this mini-review, we summarize current findings highlighting the critical roles of EVs and their therapeutic potential as demonstrated in cellular, animal, and human studies related to CNS injury and disease.
Park et al. (2025) studied this question.