Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are nanometer-scale membranous particles that can carry and deliver a wide range of cargo, including proteins and genetic material. The EV research field has exploded since discovering their role as intercellular messengers capable of influencing neighboring cells as well as pathological pathways. Importantly, EVs have shown significant promise as biomarkers to diagnose and monitor disease states.
In this article collection we present a series of reviews, research articles and protocols on the fundamentals of EV biology. As isolation and characterization methods advance, our understanding of how EVs function as integral components of intercellular signaling pathways will lead to greater biological insights and potential therapeutics for human diseases.
What you will learn:
- Current state of knowledge on fundamentals of EV biology
- Technical review of EV isolation methods
- Role of flow cytometry and imaging as EV characterization tools
- Extracellular vesicles as biomarkers of disease
Articles contained in the collection:
Couch, Y., Buzàs, E. I., Di Vizio, D., Gho, Y. S., Harrison, P., Hill, A. F., Lötvall, J., Raposo, G., Stahl, P. D., Théry, C., Witwer, K. W., & Carter, D. R. F. (2021). A brief history of nearly EV-erything – The rise and rise of extracellular vesicles. Journal of Extracellular Vesicles, 10, e12144.
De Sousa, K. P., Rossi, I., Abdullahi, M., Ramirez, M. I., Stratton, D., & Inal, J. M. (2022). Isolation and characterization of extracellular vesicles and future directions in diagnosis and therapy. WIREs Nanomedicine and Nanobiotechnology, e1835.
Gorgun, C., Reverberi, D., Rotta, G., Villa, F., Quarto, R., & Tasso, R. (2019). Isolation and flow cytometry characterization of extracellular-vesicle subpopulations derived from human mesenchymal stromal cells. Current Protocols, 48, e76.
Li, W., Shao, B., Liu, C., Wang, H., Zheng, W., Kong, W., Liu, X., Xu, G., Wang, C., Li, H., Zhu, L., Yang, Y. Noninvasive Diagnosis and Molecular Phenotyping of Breast Cancer through Microbead-Assisted Flow Cytometry Detection of Tumor-Derived Extracellular Vesicles Small Methods 2018, 2, 1800122.
Han, C, Kang, H, Yi, J, et al. Single-vesicle imaging and co-localization analysis for tetraspanin profiling of individual extracellular vesicles. J Extracell Vesicles. 2021; 10:e12047.
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