E-Book

E-Book 3rd Congress

  • Diagnostic Role of Peripheral Blood Extracellular Vesicles for Substance Use Disorders (Methamphetamine, Cocaine, Heroin and Morphine)
  • Tayebeh Mohtashami,1,* Behzad Garmabi,2 Mehdi Khaksari,3 Amir Atashi,4
    1. . Student Research Committee, School of Medicine, Shahroud University of Medical Sciences, Shahroud, Iran
    2. Study and Treatment of Circadian Rhythms Research Center, Shahroud University of Medical Sciences, Shahroud, Iran
    3. Addiction Research Center, Shahroud University of Medical Sciences, Shahroud, Iran
    4. Stem Cell and Tissue Engineering Research Center, Shahroud University of Medical Sciences, Shahroud, Iran


  • Introduction: Introduction: Extracellular vehicles (EVs) are a group of membrane particles released from cells which introduce as a new approach for diagnosis/therapeutic purposes. While the role of EVs in the pathogenesis of cancer, neurological diseases and viral infections has been widely discussed, the role of EVs in drug addiction has not yet been clearly defined. Therefore, this research attempts to explore alteration of peripheral blood extracellular vesicles in substance use disorders (SUD).
  • Methods: Methods: To carry out this research, English articles published in Scopus, PubMed, Embase and Web of science databases were searched. The keywords of this search, which was limited to studies from 2013 to 2023, were extracellular vesicles, drug abuse, substance use disorders, methamphetamine, cocaine, morphine, and heroin.
  • Results: Findings: Out of 61 articles, 43 articles which were related to the topic were reviewed. These studies show that EVs have been used in both diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. From all of molecules inside EVs, only microRNAs showed expression changes in SUD. The results also showed that miR-29a-3p, miR-181a, miR-15b, let-7e, let-7d, miR-29b, and miR-140 in EVs were significantly associated with drug use disorder. On the other hand, it has been proven that miR-451a, miR-21a and miR-744a in EVs are related to the severity of anxiety and depression, as well as the concentration of neurotransmitters GABA, choline and serotonin in substance use disorders, which can be considered as a specific biomarker. In addition, upregulation of miR-21 and miR-138 in EVs can play an important role in therapeutic approaches to treat substance use disorders.
  • Conclusion: Conclusion: These data show that extracellular vesicles play a significant role in the biology of drug addiction. miRNA analysis of extracellular vesicles could become a promising diagnostic strategy for monitoring addiction withdrawal symptoms. On the other hand, it is possible to design targeted therapeutic approaches by fine-tuning the function of miRNAs.
  • Keywords: Keywords: Extracellular Vesicles, Substance Use Disorder, miRNA