Guidelines for the purification and characterization of extracellularvesicles of parasites
Parasites are responsible for the most neglected tropical diseases, affecting over a bil-lion people worldwide (WHO, 2015) and accounting for billions of cases a year andresponsible for several millions of deaths. Research on extracellular vesicles (EVs)has increased in recent years and demonstrated...
| Sumario: | Parasites are responsible for the most neglected tropical diseases, affecting over a bil-lion people worldwide (WHO, 2015) and accounting for billions of cases a year andresponsible for several millions of deaths. Research on extracellular vesicles (EVs)has increased in recent years and demonstrated that EVs shed by pathogenic para-sites interact with host cells playing an important role in the parasite’s survival, suchas facilitation of infection, immunomodulation, parasite adaptation to the host envi-ronment and the transfer of drug resistance factors. Thus, EVs released by parasitesmediate parasite-parasite and parasite-host intercellular communication. In addi-tion, they are being explored as biomarkers of asymptomatic infections and diseaseprognosis after drug treatment. However, most current protocols used for the iso-lation, size determination, quantification and characterization of molecular cargo ofEVs lack greater rigor, standardization, and adequate quality controls to certify theenrichment or purity of the ensuing bioproducts. We are now initiating major guide-lines based on the evolution of collective knowledge in recent years. The main pointscovered in this position paper are methods for the isolation and molecular character-ization of EVs obtained from parasite-infected cell cultures, experimental animals,and patients. The guideline also includes a discussion of suggested protocols andfunctional assays in host cells |
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