Nat Nanotechnol: Research reveals new mechanisms for cell long-range communication.

According to !---- a new finding by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), extracellular vesicles (nanoparticles released by cells) can move as fast as cars move in and out of traffic, navigating in an environment filled with obstacles outside the cell.their findings, published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, are a key first step in the effective use of exoblastal vesicles (EVs) as a treatment for diseases such as lung injury and cancer.Although EVs were discovered more than 30 years ago, many believe that EVs are cell waste trapped in extracellular matrixes, and for the past 10 years the field has recognized that EVs are not garbage.they play an important role in long-distance communication between cells.extracellular matrix is a gel-like mesh that surrounds cells with tight protein chains and sugar.to understand how billions of EVs navigate, Jae-Won Shin, associate professor of bioengineering and pharmacy at the UIC School of Medicine, used improved imaging, vesicle markers and motion capture techniques that were impossible decades ago.researchers used an artificial matrix called hydrogel to see if its structure played a role in EVs navigation.the hardness of their custom hydrogels, as well as the extent to which they relax after being pressured by objects, so that the hydrogels more or less resemble the matrix in the human body.' When the hydrogel does not relax over time like rubber, The EVs get stuck. Stephen Lenzini, a graduate student at the UIC School of Engineeringand lead author of the study, said.'hydrogel needs to have a hard skeleton to provide some kind of structure, but after pressure it must also be relaxed enough to readjust itself over time, which allows EVs to move.'s interesting finding is that the ability of EVs to move in certain materials does not exist in synthetic particles of similar size.'EVs are also critical to their own flexibility in small spaces.when water channel protein 1, a membrane protein that allows water to enter and leave EVs, stops working, EVs get stuck.moisture through the membrane of the water channel protein-1 is essential for EVs through the hydrogel gap.Lenzini said: 'This study opens up new avenues for studying the distribution of EVs and its contents in tissues.'Shin said the findings brought the UIC team closer to designing an effective drug delivery system. 's 'a range of diseases in the organizational environment has undergone substantial changes. in fibrosis and some cancers, tissues and substrates become harder over time. in some cancers, the distribution of EVs leads to the spread of the disease. so understanding how EVs are dispersed is critical to the development of these cellless therapies and to prevent disease progression. '