Extracellular vesicles (EVs) as diagnostic tools in the phenotypic determination of lung tumors

Immunotherapy has been one of the great advances in recent years for the treatment of advanced tumors. Our goal is to determine whether extracellular vesicles (EVs) are effective and appropriate tools for detecting and blocking immune checkpoints proteins (ICPs). We developed a method for tracing tumor content via an analysis of EVs surface makers in the bloodstream using the MAGPIX platform (Fig.1). As a proof of concept, we have developed the detection of 4 ICP-EV. We will use this technology to monitor the ICP-EV profile in patients undergoing immunotherapeutic treatment. Second, endothelial EVs will be used as drug carriers to transfer small interfering RNAs (siRNA) targeting programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1). We have first studied the effects of blocking PD-L1 by transfections. PD-L1 downregulation affects pro-tumoral properties of lung cancer cells. As first preliminary results, we observed a decrease of PD-L1 in Cargo-EV treated cells. Next, the function of the treatment on tumor progression will be studied in vivo by injecting Cargo-EV in two different models (TC-1 and LLC).
Source: European Respiratory Journal - Category: Respiratory Medicine Authors: Tags: 11.01 - Lung cancer Source Type: research