Extracellular Vesicles – A New Frontier In Medical Research. Researchers Can Tap On This Area For Opportunities To Further Improve Clinical Care

The human genome, proteome and microbiome have been extensively studied for the last two decades. One area which was less studied and perhaps neglected by scientists has been in an area related to cell secretions. Extracellular vesicles (EV) have now become the next focus of intensive scientific research. They comprise an assortment of extracellular structures, separately or variously known as exosomes, lipid membrane vesicles, microvesicles, microparticles, nanoparticles, ectosomes and apoptotic bodies. This emerging field pertains to nano & microparticles that carry proteins and RNA, both of which serve important cellular functions, and is likely to be an important player in the fast evolving field of nanomedicine. EVs are secreted by many cell types and are present in many bodily fluids (plasma, saliva, urine, tear, milk, semen etc). Their levels and composition are altered in various diseases and hence are potential biomarkers. 1 They are an ideal source for biomarker discovery in plasma. Being encapsulated in lipid vesicles and easily extractable, this reduce the susceptibility of putative biomarkers to degradation during transport and storage, and enable biomarkers to be discovered without the confounding presence of high abundance plasma proteins e.g. albumin andimmunoglobulins. 2 They are intimately involved in cell signalling and therefore are fundamental to our understanding of biology and pathology. They were