Biophysical Society Thematic Meeting | Ascona, Switzerland

Liposomes, Exosomes, and Virosomes: From Modeling Complex Membrane Processes to Medical Diagnostics and Drug Delivery

Thursday Speaker Abstracts

Extracellular Vesicles for Trans-Blood Brain Barrier Drug Delivery Matthew Wood . Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are natural nanovesicles whose function is the intercellular transport of protein and RNA components. Given the urgent requirement for more effective application and delivery of biotherapeutic agents in the treatment of neurological disorders we have sought to exploit the natural properties of EVs and EV-based technologies for this purpose. We have therefore begun to develop a range of EV-based platform technologies including; EV display of brain-targeting for trans-blood brain barrier delivery; EV delivery nucleic acid-based therapeutic agents; EV display of biotherapeutic agents; novel methods for EV isolation. EVs comprising these drug cargoes or for biotherapeutic display have been evaluated in vitro and in vivo, to evaluate biodistribution, brain penetration and efficacy in animal disease models. In particular we have begun to study gene silencing applications for neurodegenerative disease and methods for modulating neuroinflammation. Future prospects for developing and exploiting EV-based technologies for regenerative medicine applications will be discussed. 1: Alvarez-Erviti L, Seow Y, Yin H, Betts C, Lakhal S, Wood MJ. Delivery of siRNA to the mouse brain by systemic injection of targeted exosomes. Nature Biotechnology 2011 Apr;29(4):341- 2: El-Andaloussi S, Lee Y, Lakhal-Littleton S, Li J, Seow Y, Gardiner C, Alvarez-Erviti L, Sargent IL, Wood MJ. Exosome-mediated delivery of siRNA in vitro and in vivo. Nature Protocols 2012 Dec;7(12):2112-26 3: EL Andaloussi S, Mäger I, Breakefield XO, Wood MJ. Extracellular vesicles: biology and emerging therapeutic opportunities. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 2013 May;12(5):347-57

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