We have collected the most exciting new researches in the field of genetics and cellular research in the past week.
Extracellular vesicles as possible therapeutic candidates for a wide range of age-related pathologies
Abstract
Rejuvenation of an old organism was achieved in heterochronic parabiosis experiments, implicating different soluble factors in this effect. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are the secretory effectors of many cells, including cardiosphere-derived cells (CDCs) with demonstrated anti-senescent effect.
A SERS-lateral flow strip biosensor for absolute quantification of serum exosomes
Abstract
Exosomes (exos) widely existing in body fluids show great potential for noninvasive cancer diagnosis. Quantitative analysis of exos is traditionally performed by targeting specific exosomal surface proteins, but it is often imprecise due to the common expression of exosomal proteins and subtle expression differences between different cancer subtypes. Researchers report quantitative surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) of serum exos through a combination of a paper-based lateral flow strip (LFS) biosensor with multivariate spectral unmixing analysis rather than simply quantifying exosomal proteins. This SERS-LFS biosensor enables absolute quantification of two different serum exos with a limit of detection down to ∼106 particles/mL for both exos. The researchers further exemplify the application of this strategy in quantitative dual-plex detection of serum exos from breast cancer patients. They found that human epidermal growth factor receptor 2+ (HER2+) and luminal A breast cancer patients undergoing no surgery are enriched in serum exos derived from SKBR-3 cells and MCF-7 cells (denoted as SKBR and MCF exos), respectively. The surgical treatment of these breast cancer patients accompanies an obvious decrease of either SKBR or MCF exos in the serum. These results suggest the great potential of the combination of the SERS-LFS biosensor and multivariate spectral unmixing for breast cancer subtyping and therapeutic surveillance with the powerful quantitative capability of exos in clinical samples.
Comparison of Exosome Isolation and Analysis Methods
Abstract Your body makes heavy use of the versatile lipid-membrane-enclosed nanoparticles known as exosomes. In humans, they have direct roles in immunity, intercellular communication, and cancer (Wang et al., 2023). Especially given that exosomes are in common, easy-to-sample biological fluids such as blood and urine (Martins et al., 2023), it’s no surprise that hundreds of exosome-focused clinical trials have been conducted or are in progress (Chavda et al., 2023). In fact, the global exosome research market was $144 million in 2021, and is predicted to reach $661 million by 2026 (MarketsandMarkets, 2022).
There are established guidelines for documenting the functional activities that are associated with exosomes and other extracellular vesicles (Thére et al., 2018). Nevertheless, as of yet there is no single established procedure for isolating exosomes, and a comprehensive means of analyzing them might require multiple technologies (Eisenstein, 2022). Such capabilities are foundational to minimizing toxicity and other off-target outcomes of their use.
Researcher Leads NCI Grant to Develop Urine Test to Lessen Need for Invasive Biopsies in Prostate Cancer Detection
Sanoj Punnen, M.D., co-chair of the Genitourinary Site Disease Group at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and associate professor and vice chair of research, Desai Sethi Urology Institute, at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, is leading a $2.5 million, five-year National Cancer Institute (NCI) grant to explore a new way to noninvasively detect prostate cancer.
The role of exosomes in aesthetics
To attain eternal youth and beauty, the world of aesthetics constantly evolves, seeking innovative and effective treatments. Exosomes, a relatively recent discovery in the field of regenerative medicine, have emerged as a promising tool for enhancing aesthetics. These tiny vesicles, secreted by various cells in the body, play a pivotal role in cell-to-cell communication and tissue repair. Their regenerative potential and versatile applications have garnered interest in cosmetic procedures. This article delves into the role of exosomes in aesthetics, exploring their mechanism of action, benefits, and the potential future they hold for revolutionizing beauty treatments.
A random forest model for predicting exosomal proteins using evolutionary information and motifs
Non-invasive diagnostics and therapies are crucial to prevent patients from undergoing painful procedures. Exosomal proteins can serve as important biomarkers for such advancements. In this study, we attempted to build a model to predict exosomal proteins. All models are trained, tested, and evaluated on a non-redundant dataset comprising 2831 exosomal and 2831 non-exosomal proteins, where no two proteins have more than 40% similarity. Initially, the standard similarity-based method Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) was used to predict exosomal proteins, which failed due to low-level similarity in the dataset. To overcome this challenge, machine learning (ML) based models were developed using compositional and evolutionary features of proteins achieving an area under the receiver operating characteristics (AUROC) of 0.73. Our analysis also indicated that exosomal proteins have a variety of sequence-based motifs which can be used to predict exosomal proteins. Hence, we developed a hybrid method combining motif-based and ML-based approaches for predicting exosomal proteins, achieving a maximum AUROC of 0.85 and MCC of 0.56 on an independent dataset. This hybrid model performs better than presently available methods when assessed on an independent dataset. A web server and a standalone software ExoProPred (https://webs.iiitd.edu.in/raghava/exopropred/) have been created to help scientists predict and discover exosomal proteins and find functional motifs present in them.