Trap for vesicles
Scientists have developed a new technology for fast and effective diagnosis of cancer markers
"Scientific Russia" based on the materials of the MIPT press service
A team of biophysicists from MIPT and Skoltech with colleagues has developed a new technology for isolating extracellular vesicles from biological fluids. The study of vesicles is necessary for the diagnosis and treatment of various diseases, including cancer. The proposed technology surpasses the methods known today in terms of purity and the amount of particles released. It is simple, fast and inexpensive, and only standard laboratory equipment is required for its implementation. The work was published in the highly rated The Journal of Extracellular Vesicles (Chernyshev et al., Asymmetric depth-filtration: A versatile and scalable method for high-yield isolation of extracellular vesicles with low contamination).
The cells of our body "communicate" with each other through the bloodstream, into which they secrete certain signaling molecules. In order for these molecules to reach the addressee, they are enclosed in special extracellular vesicles, small nanoscale bubbles.
Vesicles act as a delivery system. The filling of vesicles from healthy and diseased cells is different, and this is the basis of the diagnosis. Vesicles secreted by unhealthy cells contain a number of different biological molecules-markers of the disease. Their study makes it possible, in addition to diagnostics, to also monitor treatment by analyzing the dynamics of changes in the number of vesicles containing selected markers.
But the question arises: how to distinguish these carriers due to their very small size? There are a huge number of different molecules in biological fluids, but it is necessary to isolate only vesicles so that protein molecules contained in them can then be determined, which may be biomarkers of disease, or may be biomarkers of health. Depending on which nucleic acids (for example, mRNA or DNA) or proteins are inside or on the surface of the vesicles, a conclusion is made about the prospects for the patient. Therefore, it is necessary that such studies be carried out quickly, efficiently and inexpensively.
Vasily Chernyshev, a leading developer of this topic, a researcher at the Laboratory for the development of innovative Medicines and agrobiotechnologies at MIPT and the biophotonics laboratory of Skoltech, says: "At the moment there are several officially recognized methods of vesicle isolation. They are either quite time-consuming, or require special equipment, such as ultracentrifuges. Not every clinic can buy such a centrifuge, and the efficiency of vesicle extraction with this technique is quite low."
Scientists have developed a filtration device, a special membrane composition, a membrane design and a sequence of procedures. The technology made it possible to isolate vesicles simply, efficiently and with high purity, which is very important for diagnostics, as well as for studies aimed at studying extracellular vesicles. The device is made entirely of Russian components, its cost is minimal.
Vasily Chernyshev explains: "Together with Prostagnost, we have developed a device for the isolation of vesicles. The idea is that the separation occurs in the thickness of the membrane with a certain pore design. Unlike traditional filtration, we capture the product inside the filter and extract it by reverse flow. The new technology allows extracellular vesicles of various sizes, in particular exosomes, to be efficiently isolated from blood, plasma, urine, that is, almost any biological fluids. The resulting preparations are exosomes of high purity, free from impurities of other extracellular particles and molecules, but the main thing is that this requires a conventional laboratory centrifuge, certain membranes and test tubes, quite accessible to any clinical laboratory of the Russian Federation."
Sergey Leonov, Head of the Laboratory for the Development of Innovative Medicines and Agrobiotechnologies at MIPT, adds: "Our group has done a lot of work to characterize and prove the purity of membrane vesicles ranging in size from 40 to 100 nm, called exosomes. This is very important for diagnostics and very important for proteomics. All scientific and medical research devoted to the study of extracellular vesicles is in great need of such simple, fast and effective methods. We have proposed a unique domestic technology that can become routine for traditional oncology practice. This work is a successful example of the interinstitutional, industrial and international cooperation conducted by MIPT, which makes it possible to successfully solve issues not only of import substitution, but also of bringing innovative domestic developments to the market that exceed existing world analogues in their characteristics."
In addition to scientists from the Laboratory for the Development of innovative medicines and agrobiotechnologies of MIPT and Skoltech, colleagues from the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry took part in the work. Shemyakin and Ovchinnikov of the Russian Academy of Sciences, V. I. Kulakov National Medical Research Center of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Perinatology of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, the Institute of Biological Instrumentation of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the University of Utah (USA) and the Prostognost Company.
The work was carried out with the support of the Russian Science Foundation.
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