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Exosomes are small vesicles released by cells, which contain proteins and genetic materials. They are thought to be involved in various life activities, but current techniques to observe them are expensive and time-consuming. In a recent study, a team of undergraduate students from DGIST, Korea, proved the convenience and effectiveness of laser-based technique in identifying exosomes using exosomes from a less studied cancer type, paving the way for future exosome research.
Despite our great progress in understanding various cellular mechanisms over the last decades, many of them remain unclear. Such is the case for exosomes, small vesicles released by cells that contain genetic materials called “RNA” and various proteins. The roles of exosomes are believed to be very varied and important, both for normal bodily functions and also in the spreading of diseases like cancer. However, exosomes are so small that studying them is challenging and calls for costly and time
In drug development many applications are found for lipid-based nanoparticles (Lb-NPs) as successful transporters
for poorly water-soluble drugs and oligonucleotides in gene therapy.
Major advantages of lipids are their
high biocompatibility and biodegradability. In addition, advanced formulations using Lb-NP encapsulation of active ingredients can strongly contribute to targeted drug delivery in the body as well as stability and storage of the formulation.
The most important current medical applications include
cancer therapeutics and some of the current
COVID-19 vaccines.
Development and manufacturing of Lb-NP products often involves complex processes that need to be thoroughly understood and controlled to ensure optimum and constant quality of the medicine for patients. Therefore,
Using Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) to Analyze Virus Particles
Conventional visual techniques of detecting virus particles in solution provide a glimpse of an extremely small sampling volume, while the method of particle analysis employing dynamic light scattering generates an ensemble
average of particles inside the solutions.
Virus particles incubated in the laboratory pose an issue, as they need to be grown inside cells in a media containing albumin and additional small proteins, like those inside Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS) or Minimum Essential Media (MEM) solutions.
When virus particles are emitted from the cells, the cell pieces are big and can be divided by centrifugation, however the lesser proteins of the media cannot be eliminated. Cautious choice of the distribution parameters from a dynamic light scattering experiment permits clear observation of the size distributions of virus particles in the presence of significantly smaller proteins that make up the