Research progress on the role of extracellular vesicles in neurodegenerative diseases

Neurodegenerative diseases,such as Alzheimer’s disease,Parkinson’s disease,amyotrophic lateral sclerosis,and Huntington’s disease,affect millions of people worldwide.Tremendous efforts have been put into disease-related research,but few breakthroughs have been made in diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.Extracellular vesicles(EVs)are heterogeneous cell-derived membrane structures that arise from the endosomal system or are directly separated from the plasma membrane.EVs contain many biomolecules,including proteins,nucleic acids,and lipids,which can be transferred between different cells,tissues,or organs,thereby regulating cross-organ communication between cells during normal and pathological processes.Recently,EVs have been shown to participate in various aspects of neurodegenerative diseases.Abnormal secretion and levels of EVs are closely related to the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases and contribute to disease progression.Numerous studies have proposed EVs as therapeutic targets or biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases.In this review,we summarize and discuss the advanced research progress on EVs in the pathological processes of several neurodegenerative diseases.Moreover,we outline the latest research on the roles of EVs in neurodegenerative diseases and their therapeutic potential for the diseases.

Screening cytokine/chemokine profiles in serum and organs from an endotoxic shock mouse model by LiquiChip

Studying the cytokine profiles in animal models or patients with sepsis provides an experimental basis for the identification of diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets. In this study, we used a liquid protein chip （LiquiChip）, also known as flexible multi-analyte profiling technology, to perform quantitative analyses of several cytokines and chemokines （e.g., IL-II3, IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-10, IL-12, TNF-ct, IFN-7, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor, keratinocyte chemoattractant, monocyte chemoattractant protein, monokine induced by gamma interferon, IFN-7-inducible protein 10, and macrophage inflammatory protein 1 alpha）. The levels of these cytokines and chemokines were determined both in the blood and in tissues, including the lung, liver, heart, kidney, spleen, brain, stomach, intestine and muscle, of mice challenged with LPS, Our data showed variable production levels of LPS-induced cytokines in different mouse organs, and the cytokine in the blood did not correlate with those in the organs. We also showed that the levels of most cytokines peaked within 1 to 6 h and decreased rapidly afterward. A variety of inflammatory cytokines might be related to the damage in different organs during septic shock. Our data also suggest that the spleen might be an important target organ in the development of systemic inflammatory response syndrome and sepsis.