Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are known to perform important biological functions and have been implicated in multiple disease pathogeneses, including HIV and drugs of abuse. EVs can carry biological molecules via biofluids such as plasma and cerebrospinal fluids (CSF) from healthy or disease organs to distant organs and deliver biomolecules to recipient cells that subsequently alter the physiology of the recipient organs. As biocarriers, EVs have the potential to be developed as non-invasive biomarkers for disease pathogenesis and drug abuse, as the level of specific EV components can be altered under disease/drug abuse conditions. Since many drugs don’t cross the blood-brain barrier, EVs have shown the potential to encapsulate small drug molecules, including nucleotides, and carry these drugs to brain cells and enhance brain drug bioavailability. Through this special issue, we have covered several studies related to the role of EVs in altering biological functions via cell-cell interactions in healthy, HIV, and drug of abuse conditions. We have also included studies on the role of EVs as potential biomarkers for HIV pathogenesis and drugs of abuse. Further, the potential role of EVs in drug delivery in the CNS for diseases, including HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders and other neurological disorders, are covered in this issue.

中文翻译：

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HIV、药物滥用和药物递送中的细胞外囊泡。

众所周知，细胞外囊泡 (EV) 具有重要的生物学功能，并且与多种疾病病原体有关，包括 HIV 和滥用药物。EV 可以通过血浆和脑脊液 (CSF) 等生物流体将生物分子从健康或疾病器官运送到远处器官，并将生物分子传递给受体细胞，从而改变受体器官的生理机能。作为生物载体，EVs 有可能被开发为疾病发病机制和药物滥用的非侵入性生物标志物，因为特定 EV 成分的水平可以在疾病/药物滥用条件下改变。由于许多药物不能穿过血脑屏障，因此 EV 已显示出封装小药物分子（包括核苷酸）并将这些药物携带到脑细胞并提高脑部药物生物利用度的潜力。通过本期特刊，我们涵盖了几项与 EV 在健康、HIV 和药物滥用条件下通过细胞间相互作用改变生物学功能的作用的研究。我们还纳入了关于 EV 作为 HIV 发病机制和滥用药物的潜在生物标志物的作用的研究。此外，本期还涵盖了 EV 在中枢神经系统疾病药物递送中的潜在作用，包括 HIV 相关的神经认知障碍和其他神经系统疾病。