Abstract

Mt-SEA Pipeline: High Throughput Flow Cytometric Analysis of Exosomes in Clinical Biofluids

Jennifer Jones, NIH Stadtman Investigator, Head of Transnational Nanobiology, Laboratory of Pathology, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute

Because Extracellular Vesicles (EVs) carry surface receptors that are characteristic of their cells of origin, EVs have tremendous potential as non-invasive biomarkers for diagnosis, risk-stratification, treatment selection, and treatment monitoring. We developed a first-in-class pipeline to characterize EV heterogeneity and provide high-sensitivity quantification of informative EVs in biofluids before, during, and after treatment. By combining multiplex assays with high-resolution, single EV flow cytometric methods together into a Mutiplex-to-Single EV Analysis (Mt-SEA) pipeline, we are able to characterize a broad range of relevant EV subsets, while also accurately measuring the concentration of specific EV populations.  Detection of tumor-associated EVs and detection of EV repertoire changes during treatment paves the way to future evaluation of EVs as as biomarkers for use in personalized, adaptive therapies.