Event Title

Blood Plasma-derived Exosomes as Potential Biomarkers for Painful Diabetic Neuropathy

Session Number

Project ID: MEDH 14

Advisor(s)

Dr. Daniela Maria Menichella; Northwestern University

James Scott Coy-Dibley; Northwestern University

Discipline

Medical and Health Sciences

Start Date

19-4-2023 10:35 AM

End Date

19-4-2023 10:50 AM

Abstract

Painful Diabetic Neuropathy (PDN) is a debilitating complication that manifests in 25% of diabetic patients and is characterized by neuropathic pain, small-fiber degeneration, and the hyperexcitability of the dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons. In recent years, blood plasma exosomes (BPEs) have developed an emerging role as prominent intercellular messengers with a potential involvement in disease progression, but their study in PDN is lacking. BPEs facilitate cell-to-cell communication by releasing their cargo to destination cells, impacting their physiological and transcriptomic functioning. Using a well-established type II diabetes mouse paradigm, whereby wildtype mice are fed a high-fat diet (HFD) to induce PDN, pre-functional studies were conducted on exosomes isolated from blood plasma via size exclusion chromatography. BPEs were characterized using dynamic light scattering (DLS) to determine their size, electron microscopy (EM) for morphological analysis, and will undergo western blotting (WB) for known exosomal markers, such as the membrane-bound proteins ALIX and Syntenin along with aqueous CD81. DLS studies suggested an average exosomal size of 130 nm, which was confirmed with EM. Future work will focus on functional studies of BPEs on the DRGs along with using blood plasma collected from PDN patients for translational studies.

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Apr 19th, 10:35 AM Apr 19th, 10:50 AM

Blood Plasma-derived Exosomes as Potential Biomarkers for Painful Diabetic Neuropathy

Painful Diabetic Neuropathy (PDN) is a debilitating complication that manifests in 25% of diabetic patients and is characterized by neuropathic pain, small-fiber degeneration, and the hyperexcitability of the dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons. In recent years, blood plasma exosomes (BPEs) have developed an emerging role as prominent intercellular messengers with a potential involvement in disease progression, but their study in PDN is lacking. BPEs facilitate cell-to-cell communication by releasing their cargo to destination cells, impacting their physiological and transcriptomic functioning. Using a well-established type II diabetes mouse paradigm, whereby wildtype mice are fed a high-fat diet (HFD) to induce PDN, pre-functional studies were conducted on exosomes isolated from blood plasma via size exclusion chromatography. BPEs were characterized using dynamic light scattering (DLS) to determine their size, electron microscopy (EM) for morphological analysis, and will undergo western blotting (WB) for known exosomal markers, such as the membrane-bound proteins ALIX and Syntenin along with aqueous CD81. DLS studies suggested an average exosomal size of 130 nm, which was confirmed with EM. Future work will focus on functional studies of BPEs on the DRGs along with using blood plasma collected from PDN patients for translational studies.