A code of 18 digits that allows proteins to join the exosomes, tiny fragments of cells traveling through the body and transmit biochemical signals, as researchers comment at the Ottawa hospital and the University of Ottawa (Canada), In a job published in ‘Science Advances‘.
In depth
This finding has important implications For the flourishing field of exosomas therapy, which seeks to take advantage of the exosomes to administer medications to various diseases.
“Proteins are the homemade medications that the organism itself elaborates, but they are not necessarily distributed well throughout the body,” describes the doctor Michael Rudnickimain author of the study and director of the Regenerative Medicine Program of the Ottawa Hospital and professor at the University of Ottawa. “This discovery allows us Take advantage of exosomes to distribute any protein throughout the body. Open the door to a completely new field of drug development“
The doctor Rudnicki and his team discovered the postal code used to go to the exosomes within a protein called WNT7Awhich plays a fundamental role in development, growth, regeneration and cancer. First, they showed that WNT7A can join the exosomes. Then, They eliminated several parts of the WNT7A protein until they found the smallest part that was responsible for addressing the exosomes.
More details
They called this part, consisting of 18 amino acids, union peptide to exosomes (EBP). Then they discovered that the EBP joins proteins called coatomers in exosomes, and that EBP could be used to direct any protein to exosomes.
“Researchers have been Trying Convert Wnt7a into a drug for muscle regeneration, but it is very difficult to distribute WNT7A throughout the body, since it is covered with fat molecules that do not mix well with the body fluid, “says the first author, Dr. Uxia Gurriaran-Rodríguez, former postdoctoral fellow of the Doctor’s group Michael Rudnickiwhich now works at the Cooperative Research Center in Biociencias (CIC Biogune) in Spain.
“Now we know How WNT7A joins exosomes, we have solved this problem and now we can accelerate the development of drugs for devastating diseases such as Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy“He adds.
To take into account
Exosoms have become an important research area for both academic laboratories and biopharmaceutical, and Delveinsight laboratories predict growth “tremendous“In this field. The Ottawa hospital, together with the University of Ottawa and other partners, has become a leader in the combination of exosomes with proteins, RNA and other biomolecules to develop new therapies.
The BiotaPeutical Manufacture Center of the Ottawa Hospital will continue to perform A key role in the translation of this promising part of the innovation ecosystem of life sciences for the benefit of patients.
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