Abstract

Therapeutic Development and Use of Exosomes in Neurological Disease and Injury

Damien Pearse, Professor, Department of Neurological Surgery; The John M. and Jocelyn H.K. Watkins Distinguished Chair in Cell Therapies, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine

Exosomal vesicles (EVs) derived from neural and non-neural sources have shown potential in limiting damage to the CNS as well as promoting neurorepair. Our laboratory is interested in the development and utility of glial cell-derived exosomes as therapeutic agents in models of spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, among other neurological conditions. Herein I will discuss our advances in characterizing EVs from different cell sources, examining their ability to alter cellular responses in vitro in neural cell assays as well as investigating their capacity to alter pathological processes in neurological injury and disease paradigms in rodents with the goal of moving this approach towards clinical evaluation in humans.