Exosomes take advantage of their intercellular messaging to modulate the function of receptor cells, suggesting the onset and progression of lung diseases, as diagnostic markers for a variety of lung diseases. With years of experience in exosome research and projects, Creative Biolabs is capable of providing clients with exosome research services related to lung disease diagnostic applications.

Overview of Exosome Applications for Disease Diagnosis

Exosomes, as important carriers of intercellular communication and material exchange, are involved in a variety of physiological and pathological activities (e.g., involved in tumor formation, metastasis, and drug resistance). Delivering disease-related information, exosomes are considered to be an important biomarker in liquid biopsies with the advantages of being non-invasive, easily accessible, and convenient to detect. In addition, biomolecules carrying disease characteristics are easily degraded by various enzymes during the circulation of body fluids and thus exhibit a certain degree of instability, which can be protected to a certain extent by the encapsulation of exosomes, thus prolonging their existence. It has been shown that pathological tissues secrete more exosomes than normal tissues, and disease-related markers are also enriched in their corresponding exosomes. Therefore, the detection and analysis of exosomes and their encapsulated cargoes are valuable as important biomarkers in disease diagnosis.

Fig.1 Progress of exosomes in the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer. (Xu, 2021)

Investigation of Exosomes For Diagnostic Applications in Lung Diseases

Exosomes are involved in mediating various physiological and pathological activities, which contain a variety of components such as proteins and nucleic acids that have become important markers in disease detection. A comprehensive exosome profiling, including proteomic analysis and exosome RNA sequencing, can provide a wealth of information for liquid biopsy studies of exosomes in lung diseases. Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) is an important source of samples used in the diagnosis of lung disease and contains exosomes (BALF-EXO) that can influence lung tissue conditions. BALF-EXO mediates antigen delivery to the adaptive immune system and promotes activation of alveolar macrophages, mast cells, and eosinophils, leading to airway remodeling, reversible airway hyperresponsiveness, and airway obstruction in asthma. Acute lung injury in BALF-EXO has a high loading of proteins associated with apoptosis, cell necrosis, and autophagy. Wnt5a is upregulated within BALF-EXO after the onset of lung fibrosis, and lung fibroblasts are a major source of Wnt5a-containing BALF-EXO. Studies on primary lung fibroblasts revealed that either primary lung fibroblast-derived exosomes or pulmonary fibrosis-derived BALF-EXO could induce the proliferation of primary lung fibroblasts via intrinsic Wnt5a. miR-21 promotes type 1 collagen and type 3 collagen synthesis through inhibition of platelet-responsive protein type 1 expression, which in turn promotes the development of pulmonary fibrosis. Upregulated levels of exosomal miR-21 have been found in the lung tissue of patients with idiopathic fibrosis. The miR-21-containing serum-derived exosomes are involved in and promote the development of pulmonary fibrosis, which may serve as an indicator of prognosis. In addition to components such as nucleic acids and proteins in exosomes, the associated inflammatory factors carried in exosomes can also be used as a basis for determining the onset of lung disease. The elevated levels of various inflammatory factors including TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-10 contained in exosomes suggest the occurrence of inflammatory response in acute lung injury.

Fig.2 Schematic representation of exosome's mode of action in pulmonary diseases. (Liu, 2022)

As a novel biomarker for lung disease diagnosis, exosomes have the advantages of being easily accessible, widely available, highly stable in various body fluids, and intracellular cargoes that reflect well the physiological and pathological status of their parental cells. Creative Biolabs provides an innovative platform for exosome isolation and profiling to expand the prospects of exosome application in lung disease diagnosis. Please feel free to contact us.

References

1. Xu, K.; et al. Progress of exosomes in the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer. Biomed Pharmacother. 2021, 134: 111111.
2. Liu, Z.; et al. The role of exosomes from BALF in lung disease. J Cell Physiol. 2022, 237(1): 161-168.

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