Lipid codes of extracellular vesicle membranes
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are subcellular particles surrounded by a lipid bilayer membrane and can transfer molecular information from a donor to nearby or distant recipient cell, making them interesting platforms for drug development. Importantly, EV biodistribution and recipient cell specificity in vivo are dictated by molecular and biophysical traits of EVs, that at least in part depend on lipid composition of EV membranes.
We developed a pipeline for the isolation and quantitative, high-resolution lipidomic analysis of EVs derived from a panel of cancer and non-malignant cell lines, including normal melanocytes, melanoma cells, and a range of carcinomas, of both mouse and human origin. These data not only provide unique, biological insights into the molecular composition of EVs from different cellular sources but will also be instrumental for the design of synthetic, EV-mimetic drug formulations.
Schematic representation of the project: Extracellular vesicles (EVs) were isolated from cell culture supernatants of 9 malignant and non-malignant cell lines using a combination of size exclusion chromatography and ultracentrifugation. Lipids were extracted from EV membranes and analyzed using high-resolution, quantitative mass spectrometry. The resulting EV membrane lipid database provides a critical resource for basic EV research as well as the design of EV-inspired drug formulations.