Intercellular Chemical Communication Through EV Exchange: Evaluation of the EV Fusion Process Parameters at the Receiving Cell

Abstract

Cells communicate with each other exploiting a variety of chemical signals. Among them, Extracellular Vesicles (EVs) have attracted large interest by the scientific community. In fact, thanks to the advances in bio-nano-technology and the possibility of engineering EVs, they are envisioned as a perfect means for distributing biological information among receiving cells. However, deciphering the molecular mechanisms that regulate the delivery of EV cargo is, today, a necessary, yet challenging, step toward the exploitation of EV signaling to support innovative and efficient therapeutic protocols, alternative to current drug delivery technologies. In particular, very little information is currently available on the processes of EV fusion, which is the EV internalization process occurring when the EV membrane dissolves into the plasma membrane of the target cell, and the EV content is released into the cytosol. In order to understand the dynamics of this process, this paper introduces an analytical model of the evolution of the fusion process. Moreover, since the measurement of the biological parameters driving the fusion process is far to be achieved, in this paper we use the model as a tool to infer likely values of such parameters from parameters that are measurable with current technology.