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Description
Medicine-food homology is a precious heritage accumulated over thousands of years in Chinese civilization. From the "Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon" to the systematic records in "Diet Therapy Materia Medica," and with the inclusion of Rehmannia glutinosa, Ophiopogon japonicus, Asparagus cochinchinensis, and Citrus grandis into the "Catalogue of Substances That Are Traditionally Both Food and Chinese Medicinal Materials" by the National Health Commission and the State Administration for Market Regulation in 2024, the total number of food-drug homology substances in China has reached 106 — a figure that continues to expand dynamically. Medicine-food homology resources not only carry traditional health wisdom but also demonstrate tremendous scientific development potential in modern society. However, how to systematically discover, isolate, identify, and utilize the active components from these resources remains a core challenge facing the discipline.
Meanwhile, extracellular vesicles (EVs) and exosomes have become a frontier hotspot in international life sciences. Plant-derived extracellular vesicles (PDEVs), as a class of natural nanoscale membrane structures, possess unique advantages including wide source availability, excellent biocompatibility, low immunogenicity, and strong cross-species delivery capacity. In recent years, extracellular vesicle-like nanoparticles isolated from medicine-food homology plants such as ginger, ginseng, grape, lemon, broccoli, and tea have been demonstrated to exhibit anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antitumor, intestinal microecology-regulating, and tissue repair-promoting biological activities, showing broad prospects for resource development and utilization.
The study of the development and utilization of extracellular vesicles and exosomes derived from medicine-food homology resources stands at a critical historical intersection: on one hand, the continuous expansion of the medicine-food homology substance catalog provides a rich natural material library for resource discovery; on the other hand, rapid advances in exosome isolation, purification, omics characterization, and engineering modification technologies have made it possible to systematically explore the active components and functional mechanisms of extracellular vesicles in medicine-food homology resources. However, this field still faces bottlenecks including inadequate resource screening systems, insufficient standardization, lack of quality control systems, scarce in vivo fate and safety data, and unclear clinical translation pathways.
Food & Medicine Homology Resources (FMHR), the establishment of the "Development and Utilization of Food & Medicine Homology Extracellular Vesicles & Exosomes" special issue is both an inevitable response to disciplinary development needs and an important strategic move for FMHR to lead the frontier and serve national strategies.
This special issue focuses on the resource discovery, isolation and purification, characterization and quality control, biological functions and mechanisms, drug delivery and engineering modification, safety evaluation and regulatory oversight, and clinical translation and industrial development and utilization of extracellular vesicles and exosomes derived from medicine-food homology resources. The aim is to establish a comprehensive scientific evidence base for the further exploration and development of these extracellular vesicles and exosomes as novel functional-food ingredients, drug delivery carriers, and health products.
The topics of interest for this special issue include, but are not limited to, the following:
1.Resource discovery and raw material screening: Resource surveys and systematic discovery of extracellular vesicles/exosomes from medicine-food homology plants; effects of different species, plant parts, growth stages, and processing methods on vesicle yield and composition; establishment of screening and evaluation systems for high-yield, high-activity medicine-food homology vesicle resources; distinction and definition of plant-derived extracellular vesicles versus fermentation products and plant nanoparticles.
2.Isolation, purification, and preparation technologies: Novel isolation techniques for extracellular vesicles/exosomes from medicine-food homology plants; optimization and comparison of differential centrifugation, ultrafiltration, size-exclusion chromatography, polymer precipitation, immunocapture, and microfluidic methods; scalability and cost-effectiveness studies for large-scale preparation; process transition pathways from laboratory scale to pilot and industrial production.
3.Characterization and quality control: Multidimensional physical characterization including morphology, particle size distribution, and surface charge (zeta potential); systematic analysis of proteomics, lipidomics, and nucleic acid omics (miRNA, mRNA, DNA); identification of membrane markers (e.g., tetraspanin family) and functional markers; establishment of quality control standards and evaluation systems in line with MISEV2023 and other international guidelines; batch-to-batch consistency and stability studies (temperature, pH, freeze-thaw cycles, etc.).
4.Biological functions and mechanisms: Evaluation of anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antitumor, antibacterial, and antiviral activities; intervention effects on metabolic diseases (diabetes, obesity, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease), cardiovascular diseases, and neurodegenerative diseases; intestinal barrier protection, gut microbiota regulation, and "gut-target organ" axis mechanisms; immune regulation (innate and adaptive immunity) and tissue regeneration; anti-aging, anti-melanogenesis, and skin barrier repair applications.
5.Drug delivery and engineering modification: Drug-loading strategies using medicine-food homology extracellular vesicles as natural nanocarriers (small-molecule drugs, nucleic acids, proteins, peptides); surface modification (targeting ligands, PEGylation, charge regulation) and in vivo targeted delivery; stability protection for oral delivery and gastrointestinal absorption mechanisms; delivery across special biological barriers (blood-brain barrier, placental barrier); biomimetic engineering modification and comparative studies with artificially synthesized plant exosome-like nanoparticles.
6.Safety evaluation and regulatory oversight: Systematic safety evaluation including acute toxicity, chronic toxicity, genotoxicity, and immunotoxicity; in vivo pharmacokinetic studies (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion); alignment pathways with existing food, health food, and drug regulatory frameworks; exploration of the regulatory status of medicine-food homology extracellular vesicles as novel food raw materials, functional food ingredients, or drug delivery systems; adaptation of international standards (ISO, FDA, EFSA, PMDA, etc.) to local contexts.
7.Industrial utilization and clinical translation: Key milestones and bottleneck analysis in the transition from preclinical research to clinical trials; innovative applications in functional foods, foods for special medical purposes, and health foods; transdermal delivery and efficacy validation in cosmetics and skincare products; antibiotic-substitution applications in agriculture and animal husbandry (e.g., plant extracellular vesicles as feed additives); quality control, standardization, and cost optimization in industrial production; commercialization pathways and industrial chain construction for the development and utilization of medicine-food homology extracellular vesicle resources.
Keywords: Medicine-food homology; Plant exosomes; Extracellular vesicles; Resource development and utilization; Isolation and purification; Characterization and identification; Targeted delivery; Safety evaluation; Clinical translation
Instructions for submission
The Editorial Manager System is ready for article submission towards the Virtual special issue: SI: Development and Utilization of Food & Medicine Homology Extracellular Vesicles & Exosomes
The submission website for this journal is located at: https://mc03.manuscriptcentral.com/fmhr
To ensure that all manuscripts are correctly identified for inclusion into the special issue, it is important that authors select – Vesicle & Exosome when they reach the "Article Type" step in the submission process.
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