Publication Name	World Journal of Stem Cells
Manuscript ID	116184
Country	South Korea

Category	Neurosciences
Manuscript Type	Review
Article Title	Therapeutic applications of mesenchymal stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles in pain management: A narrative review of emerging evidence and future directions
Manuscript Source	Invited Manuscript
All Author List	Sara Akhtar Khan, Prakash Gangadaran, Prachi Tiwari, Ramya Lakshmi Rajendran, Azfar Jamal, Shaheenkousar H Hattiwale, Kushi Anand, Saurabh Kumar Jha, Chae Moon Hong, Byeong-Cheol Ahn and Suhel Parvez
Funding Agency and Grant Number	Funding Agency Grant Number National Research Foundation of Korea Basic Science Research Program NRF-2022R1I1A1A01068652
Corresponding Author	Byeong-Cheol Ahn, Department of Nuclear Medicine, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, 680 Gukchaebosang-ro, Jung-gu, Daegu 41944, South Korea. abc2000@knu.ac.kr
Key Words	Mesenchymal stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles; Pain management; Drug delivery; Biomarkers; Immunomodulation; Nociceptor sensitization
Core Tip	This review summarizes the mechanistic and translational evidence on how mesenchymal stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) coordinately regulate inflammation, immunity and nociceptor sensitization to reduce pain. However, clinical advances are impeded by various factors like non-standardized EV isolation, indistinct dosing and regulatory constraints, hindering therapeutic validation process. Next generation EV engineering techniques, targeted cargo loading and scalable production approaches offer promise for future mesenchymal stem cell-derived EV therapies targeting chronic and refractory pain conditions.
Citation	Khan SA, Gangadaran P, Tiwari P, Rajendran RL, Jamal A, Hattiwale SH, Anand K, Jha SK, Hong CM, Ahn BC, Parvez S. Therapeutic applications of mesenchymal stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles in pain management: A narrative review of emerging evidence and future directions. World J Stem Cells 2026; In press

Received	2025-11-05 05:51
Peer-Review Started	2025-11-05 05:51
First Decision by Editorial Office Director	2025-11-14 06:18
Return for Revision	2025-11-14 06:18
Revised	2025-11-28 04:12
Publication Fee Transferred
Second Decision by Editor	2026-01-08 02:48
Second Decision by Editor-in-Chief
Final Decision by Editorial Office Director	2026-01-15 10:18
Articles in Press	2026-01-15 10:18
Edit the Manuscript by Language Editor
Typeset the Manuscript

ISSN	1948-0210 (online)
Open Access	This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
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