Towards the biomedical use of extracellular vesicle concentration in biological fluids – VESICLEMIA

Extracellular Vesicles (EVs) denote a variety of nanoparticles released by cells into surrounding milieu and circulating in biofluids such as blood. These lipid bilayer vesicles transport protected bioactive materials and may thus represent a valuable informative resource on health status and disease progression. However, an accurate standardized measure of vesiclemia (EV concentration in blood) is required. In this proposal, we want to determine the vesiclemia standard range (number and size distribution) in the healthy population and evaluate its prognostic, predictive value (hyper/hypovesiclemia) in patients. EVs will be isolated from the plasma of both healthy donors and cancer patients (Partner#3) through size-exclusion chromatography (Partner#1) and quantified using Videodrop (Partner#2). Biological EV data (Partner#1) and clinical information (Partner#3) will be confronted to stratify patients according to cancer progression and responses to treatments. Using combined state-of-the-art technologies, EV quality, quantity, and protein cargo will be determined. This project will both establish the normal range of vesiclemia in the healthy population, with values determined by age and gender, and provide the proof-of-concept that vesiclemia can serve as a predictive, diagnostic tool in ill populations, for early detection, follow-up and/or response to therapies. This project is expected to foster the transfer and democratization of time-consuming, high-skilled expertise in EV isolation and characterization to a two-step process, readily feasible in routine, to assist clinicians in decision making process.