Year: 2016
Type: dissertation
Abstract: During the past decade, extracellular vesicles (EVs) have been identified as important mediators of intercellular communication, enabling the functional transfer of bioactive molecules from one cell to another. Consequently, it is becoming increasingly clear that these vesicles are involved in many (patho)physiological processes, providing opportunities for therapeutic application. Moreover, it is known that the molecular composition of EVs reflects the physiological status of the producing cell and tissue, rationalizing their exploitation as biomarker for various diseases. In this dissertation EVs are explored as a new pharmaceutical tool, more specifically as a carrier for the delivery of RNAi-based therapeutics. In this respect, different isolation and cargo loading approaches are developed and evaluated. Additionally, the EV's ability to overcome the different cellular barriers is compared with current synthetic nucleic acid carriers. Besides their potential as a drug delivery vehicle, EVs also form an interesting biomarker source as they can be regarded as easy accessible, i.e. via liquid biopsy, windows on else difficult to reach cells. In this context a new platform to characterize individual EVs by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy is developed, which is able to discriminate between EVs from different cellular origin and has the potential to be further developed in a diagnostic context.
Author: Stephan Stremersch
Language: English
Subfield: Molecular Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2582518642