Exosomal Composition, Biogenesis and Profiling Using Point-of-Care Diagnostics—Implications for Cardiovascular Disease

Abstract

Arteriosclerosis is an important age-dependent disease that encompasses atherosclerosis, in-stent restenosis (ISR), pulmonary hypertension, autologous bypass grafting and transplant arteriosclerosis. Endothelial dysfunction and the proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cell (vSMC)-like cells is a critical event in the pathology of arteriosclerotic disease leading to intimal-medial thickening (IMT), lipid retention and vessel remodelling. An important aspect in guiding clinical decision-making is the detection of biomarkers of subclinical arteriosclerosis and early cardiovascular risk. Crucially, relevant biomarkers need to be good indicators of injury which change in their circulating concentrations or structure, signalling functional disturbances. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are nanosized membraneous vesicles secreted by cells that contain numerous bioactive molecules and act as a means of intercellular communication between different cell populations to maintain tissue homeostasis, gene regulation in recipient cells and the adaptive response to stress. This review will focus on the emerging field of EV research in cardiovascular disease (CVD) and discuss how key EV signatures in liquid biopsies may act as early pathological indicators of adaptive lesion formation and arteriosclerotic disease progression. EV profiling has the potential to provide important clinical information to complement current cardiovascular diagnostic platforms that indicate or predict myocardial injury. Finally, the development of fitting devices to enable rapid and/or high-throughput exosomal analysis that require adapted processing procedures will be evaluated.

Extracellular Vesicles as Delivery Shippers for Noncoding RNA‐Based Modulation of Angiogenesis: Insights from Ischemic Stroke and Cancer

“…[70] With the ability of EVs to transport packaged RNAs to targeted cells, increasing evidence has clarified the role of EVs in cell-to-cell communication, immune reactivity, and prognostic information in various diseases, such as cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, cardio vascular diseases, cancer progression, and assisting the spread of certain viruses. [71][72][73]…”

A comprehensive review of the medical and cosmetic applications of exosomes in dermatology

“…Upon release, through a process known as exocytosis, exosomes travel through the extracellular fluid until they reach target cells. Importantly, given that exosomes are themselves comprised of a plasma membrane‐derived phospholipid bilayer, their membrane prevents the degradation of their contents 1 . This makes it possible to safely transport vesicular contents from one cell to another over a long distance.…”

“…As such, exosomes have the ability to effectively alter their target's cellular physiology. Although this process is under active investigation, it is theorized that exosome‐mediated responses can play a role in both disease pathology and prevention 1–4 . Figure 1 illustrates these pathways for exosomes to transport and utilize their properties for intracellular communications.…”

“…their contents. 1 This makes it possible to safely transport vesicular contents from one cell to another over a long distance. Upon reaching their target cells, exosomes are taken into a cell via endocytosis, ultimately leading to the discharge of the exosome's contents into the cell's cytosol.…”

Exosomes in brain diseases: Pathogenesis and therapeutic targets

“…16 They are involved in the immune response, 15,[17][18][19] antigen presentation, cell migration, differentiation and angiogenesis, 20,21 inflammatory induction, 22 oxidative stress and apoptosis, 23 atherosclerosis, 24,25 tumor initiation, progression, invasion and metastasis, and drug resistance. 26,27 Given the ability of exosomes to carry and transfer bioactive substances, 28 the potential of exosomes to reveal the pathogenesis of diseases such as cancer, [29][30][31][32][33] brain diseases, [34][35][36][37] cardiovascular diseases, [38][39][40][41][42][43][44] and metabolic diseases, [45][46][47] as well as to diagnose and treat diseases as biomarkers are being studied and explored. [48][49][50][51][52] The prevalence of neuropsychiatric disorders, the leading cause of disability in humans, has increased in the last few decades 53 and continues to grow due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in 2019.…”