{"id":1028,"date":"2020-08-26T09:32:39","date_gmt":"2020-08-26T09:32:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clinlabint.3wstaging.nl\/tiny-nanoparticles-offer-significant-potential-in-detecting-and-treating-disease\/"},"modified":"2021-01-08T11:09:19","modified_gmt":"2021-01-08T11:09:19","slug":"tiny-nanoparticles-offer-significant-potential-in-detecting-and-treating-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/tiny-nanoparticles-offer-significant-potential-in-detecting-and-treating-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"Tiny nanoparticles offer significant potential in detecting and treating disease"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Exosomes &#8211; tiny biological nanoparticles which transfer information between cells &#8211; offer significant potential in detecting and treating disease, the most comprehensive overview so far of research in the field has concluded.<\/span><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\">Areas which could benefit include cancer treatment and regenerative medicine, say Dr Steven Conlan from Swansea University, Dr Mauro Ferrari of Houston Methodist Research Institute in Texas, and Dr In\u00eas Mendes Pinto from the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory in Portugal.&nbsp; <\/span><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\">Exosomes are particles produced by all cells in the body and are from 30-130 nanometres in size &#8211; a nanometre is one-billionth of a metre.&nbsp; <\/span>They act as biological signalling systems, communicating between cells, carrying proteins, lipids, DNA and RNA.&nbsp; They drive biological processes, from modulating gene expression to transmitting information through breast milk.<br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\">Though discovered in 1983, the full potential of exosomes is only gradually being revealed.&nbsp; <\/span>The researchers show that the nanoparticles\u2019 possible medical benefits fall into three broad categories:&nbsp; <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Detecting disease \u2013 by acting as disease-specific biomarkers<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Activating immune responses to boost immunity<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Treating diseases&nbsp; <\/span>&#8211; serving as the vehicle for drugs, for example bearing cancer therapies as their payload, to target tumours<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-GB\">One of the most useful properties of exosomes is that they are able to cross barriers such as the plasma membrane of cells, or the blood\/brain barrier.&nbsp; <\/span>This makes them well-suited to delivering therapeutic molecules in a very targeted way.<br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\">The potential benefits of exosomes can be seen in the wide range of research projects &#8211; cited in the paper \u2013 already either completed or under way, in areas such as:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Improved testing for prostate cancer&nbsp; <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span lang=\"EN-GB\">A small-cell lung cancer trial<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Stem cell-derived exosomes strengthening heart muscles<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Regeneration of muscle and tissue<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Parkinson\u2019s<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Diabetes<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-GB\">The team caution that there is more to do before research into exosomes translates into new techniques and treatments.&nbsp; <\/span>Side-effects need to be considered, and a standardised approach to isolating, characterising and storing exosomes will need to be developed.&nbsp;<br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\">Researchers will also need to ensure that the properties of exosomes do not end up causing harm: for example they can transfer drug resistance and pacify the immune system.<\/span><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\">Nevertheless, the potential is very clear, with the team describing exosomes as \u201cincreasingly promising\u201d.<\/span><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\">Professor Steve Conlan of Swansea University Medical School, one of the authors of the paper, said:<\/span><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\">\u201cOur survey of research into exosomes shows clearly that they offer enormous potential as a basis for detecting and treating disease.&nbsp; <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Swansea University<\/span><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\"><link http:\/\/www.swansea.ac.uk\/media-centre\/latest-research\/tinynanoparticlesoffersignificantpotentialindetectingandtreatingdisease-newreview.php _blank external-link-new-window \"Opens external link in new window\">www.swansea.ac.uk\/media-centre\/latest-research\/tinynanoparticlesoffersignificantpotentialindetectingandtreatingdisease-newreview.php<\/link><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Exosomes &#8211; tiny biological nanoparticles which transfer information between cells &#8211; offer significant potential in detecting and treating disease, the most comprehensive overview so far of research in the field has concluded. Areas which could benefit include cancer treatment and regenerative medicine, say Dr Steven Conlan from Swansea University, Dr Mauro Ferrari of Houston Methodist [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-e-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}