Bacterial extracellular vesicles (BEVs) are nanosized spherical vesicles secreted by bacteria. They possess lipid bilayer membranes and contain multiple bacteria-derived components, including lipopolysaccharides, lipoproteins, peptidoglycans, DNA, RNA, and others. They have been recognized as important messengers mediating communications between bacteria to bacteria and bacteria to host. Considering their intrinsic structures and components, more and more studies have exploited BEVs directly as therapeutic agents or engineered as delivery vehicles and vaccines for the diagnostic and treatment of diseases.

Currently, the mature high-density culture techniques and evolving synthetic biological tools have offered easy and versatile platforms for BEV production. Nevertheless, the unprecedented upsurge of research interests in therapeutic BEVs highlighted the burgeoning need for tailoring them with enhanced therapeutic efficacies including specific targeting, subcellular penetration, pathological site retention and etc. With this aspect, functional peptides with either targeting, penetrating, self-assembly or specific biofunctions possess the capacity to open new avenues. Functional peptides can be either modified on the surface, encapsulated inside the bilayer membranes, or even self-assembled into hydrogel embedding around BEVs to fully release the therapeutic potential of BEVs. To this end, this research topic is dedicated to cover the most recent advancement in exploring functional peptides to bridging BEVs to disease diagnostic and treatment. By combining functional peptides with BEVs, diverse new therapeutic modalities can be developed for a wider array of diseases, including cancers, infections, regenerative medicine, and immune-mediated diseases.

This research topic calls for submissions of original articles and reviews covering but not limited to the following topics:

1. Engineering strategies and techniques for enhancing the therapeutic potentials of BEVs with functional peptides;

2. Applications of the peptide-functionalized BEVs for the diagnostics and treatments of cancers, infections, regenerative medicine, and immune-mediated diseases;

3. Novel techniques for the rational design of peptide-functionalized BEVs as well as the prediction and evaluation of their therapeutic outcomes.

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Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology

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