Exosome Research

What are Exosomes?

Exosomes are natural carriers for mRNA, lncRNA, miRNA, siRNA, protein, DNA and peptides for intercellular communication. Exosomes are an ideal vehicle for intracellular targeted therapeutics delivery, especially for siRNA (Alvarez-Erviti et al., 2011). The endosomal membrane origination property allows exosomes to escape from endosome trappings and release its cargo into cytosol for its biological function (Zheng et al., 2019). To enhance its specific cancer cell targeting property, we utilize an arrow shaped RNA nanoparticle to display a ligand onto the surface of the exosomes. Decorating these exosomes with RNA nanoparticles that harbor aptamers or chemical ligands against different cancer cell surface markers enhance its biodistribution to the cancer cells after systemic administration (Pi et al., 2018).

Our Products

ExonanoRNA can provide you with the right tools to accelerate your research. We offer products for isolating high purity exosomes with ultracentrifugation method, exosome isolation and characterization, exosomes from HEK293T cells, RNA nanoparticles for exosome decoration, and siRNA delivery via exosomes.

Exosome Production

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siRNA Delivery via Exosomes

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RNA Nanoparticles for Exosome Decoration

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Exojuice

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References

Alvarez-Erviti, L., Seow, Y., Yin, H., Betts, C., Lakhal, S., and Wood, M.J. (2011). Delivery of siRNA to the mouse brain by systemic injection of targeted exosomes. Nat Biotechnol 29, 341-345.

Pi, F., Binzel, D.W., Lee, T.J., Li, Z., Sun, M., Rychahou, P., Li, H., Haque, F., Wang, S., Croce, C.M., et al. (2018). Nanoparticle orientation to control RNA loading and ligand display on extracellular vesicles for cancer regression. Nature nanotechnology 13, 82-89.

Zheng, Z., Li, Z., Xu, C., Guo, B., and Guo, P. (2019). Folate-displaying exosome mediated cytosolic delivery of siRNA avoiding endosome trapping. J Control Release 311-312, 43-49..

Our Process

The process of utilizing this technology generally includes the following steps:

1. Screen and select the ligand that can help enhance the binding property for your specific cells.
For example, we have identified that the chemical ligand folate can enhance binding to most folate receptors that overexpress cancer cells. We have also found that the 2’F RNA based aptamer used against Prostate Specific Membrane Antigen (PSMA) can enhance binding to PSMA that overexpress prostate cancer cells, and that the 2’F RNA aptamer used against EGFR can enhance its binding to breast cancer cells. These are only just a few examples to name.

2. Construct the RNA nanoparticles for exosomes decoration
We customize the design as well as prepare the RNA nanoparticles that harbor the specific ligand for exosome decoration. A hydrophobic molecule will be incorporated at the end of an arrow-tail structure on the scaffold RNA to assist anchoring onto the exosome’s surface. These nanoparticles can be designed with or without a fluorophore depending on your needs.

3. Load siRNA into the exosomes
There are several ways to load siRNA into the exosomes, such as electroporation or through commercially available siRNA loading kits. ExonanoRNA provides siRNA loading service with our validated internal method.

4. Exosome surface decoration/functionalization
The modified RNA nanoparticles for exosome decoration has one hydrophobic molecule at the arrow-tail structure to help display the ligand onto the surface of the exosomes. We provide customized exosome surface decoration to give you poste-genesis engineered exosomes with the ligand displaying on their surface. This is usually followed by steps of decoration reaction and a final purification step to remove any excess RNA nanoparticles.

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