Discoveries and innovations are continuously evolving scientific processes and practices. One of the most exciting discoveries of the last few years is the potential use of exosomes for disease treatment.
However, like many explorations, only time and continued research will unveil exosomes' true potential in disease treatment. In the meantime, here's what you should know about exosomes and how they can be used to combat Alzheimer's, cancer, and diabetes.
What Are Exosomes?
Exosomes are a type of vesicle produced by all types of cells in the human body. They were officially discovered 30 years ago when they were recognized as functional cellular output. However, they were initially observed 50 years ago and mistakenly thought to be a waste product of cells with no purpose or function. Even so, it wasn't until the past ten decades that scientists started to see the full potential of exosomes.
In simplest terms, exosomes facilitate communication within the body, carrying important data about protein, cholesterol, and what's happening in their origin cells. This functionality ties into a bigger process of regulating homeostasis at a cellular level and promoting intercellular communication and regulation.
So why are exosomes so popular all of a sudden? The recent burst of attention stems from the realization that the information the exosomes carry can be an early diagnostic marker for many diseases. Furthermore, exosomes play a role in managing the immune system.
How Do You Isolate Exosomes?
Scientists are isolating them in large quantities to study exosomes further and facilitate controlled studies better. To efficiently accomplish this crucial task, an exosome isolation kit is required.
Ultracentrifugation is one of the primary methods for isolating exosomes, as it's one of the simplest approaches and yields a high collection of exosomes. However, there are margins of error with this collection method, as many exosomes get damaged. These challenges call into question the integrity of the remaining samples. It's also a time-consuming process.
Density gradient centrifugation is an alternative to Ultracentrifugation that yields exosomes with high purity. However, this process is tedious and easy to mess up as the exosomes are sensitive to centrifugation time.
Other methods include antibody affinity, chromatography, and polymer precipitation.
Exosomes and Alzheimer's
During recent studies in Alzheimer's and dementia, it was discovered that the contents of the exosomes change when neurodegeneration is present. These changes and the transmission of toxins between cells with exosomes as the vessel is thought to induce apoptosis- cellular death. Conversely, they also transmit neuroprotective properties between cells.
Scientists aren't sure what this means yet. However, it's readily apparent that exosomes are a key marker in neurodegenerative diseases and could unlock new diagnostic and treatment options.
Exosomes and Cancer
Exosomes potentially play a key role in cancer, from how it spreads to how it can be managed. As all cells in the body produce exosomes with an imprint of information, it should be no surprise that cancerous cells fall under this umbrella. Scientists believe that this early transmission of information from cancerous cells could be an important early detection marker that could change cancer screening for the better.
Furthermore, if scientists can determine how to engineer exosomes to carry tumor-suppressing proteins and targeted treatments, it could revolutionize cancer treatment.
Exosomes and Diabetes
As with cancer and Alzheimer's, researchers believe that exosomes also carry information that could act as early markers of Type 1 Diabetes. Furthermore, the introduction of artificial exosomes with signals that counteract those carried by unhealthy exosomes could be a new form of treatment in this disease. Scientists are evaluating whether it's possible to introduce exosomes from a healthy patient to a diabetes patient and if doing so will reverse the effects and cardiological impacts.
There is likely still decades of work ahead for scientists trying to understand exosomes' full potential in early detection and disease treatment. However, the discoveries of the past decade hold a lot of promise.
