Extracellular vesicles and mitochondria in central nervous system diseases

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.