Therasid Bioscience

Cell-to-cell communication employs a diverse range of methods, including direct contact through gap junctions and plasmodesmata, autocrine, paracrine, and endocrine signaling, synaptic communication within the nervous system, juxtacrine signaling via physical interaction, chemical signaling via molecules like cytokines and neurotransmitters, electrical signaling in excitable cells, and communication through extracellular vesicles (EVs). One key challenge is how these vesicles precisely navigate to their target cells and whether their cargo functions as anticipated. Companies like Evox Therapeutics, based in Oxford and co-founded by experts like Wood, are pioneering EV systems for gene therapy, leveraging increasingly sophisticated technology to modify EVs to transport molecules that can induce tissue to express, silence, or edit genes. Among EVs, exosomes hold immense clinical promise due to their small size (30–150 nanometers) and their production within the cell's machinery, which traffics molecules and particles to their intended destinations. Exosomes are enclosed in larger packages that fuse with the cell membrane, releasing the vesicles externally. Another class, ectosomes, ranging in size from 50–10,000 nanometers, pinch off from the cell membrane edge. Researchers are also exploring EVs as potential carriers for various molecules, including chemotherapeutic agents like methotrexate or cisplatin. While certain treatments necessitate specific EV types, many researchers create them from mesenchymal stem cells when EVs are primarily required as carriers. It's worth noting that as of now, none of these therapies have received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In a noteworthy development, in 2019, the FDA introduced an accelerated approval process for an EV-based diagnostic test, marking a historic milestone. Exosome Diagnostics in Waltham, Massachusetts, gained access to this process for a urine test designed to detect prostate cancer. Another company, Exosome Sciences in San Diego, California, is advancing a blood plasma test called TauSome, which identifies tau protein associated with EVs to diagnose chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a neurodegenerative brain disorder linked to repetitive head trauma. https://lnkd.in/ee6uSgPT Image credit: EVs (magenta) can be tracked in a living human cell (nucleus shown in green) using super-resolution microscopy.Credit: ONI (@Oxford Nanoimaging)/Christopher Gregory (University of Edinburgh Centre for Inflammation Research) #CellCommunication #ExtracellularVesicles #GeneTherapy #TranslationalResearch

I am delighted to share with you this paper that has just been published in Nature Metabolism. It is the result of a wonderful collaboration with Ralf Jockers' team at the Cochin Institute, with whom we had previously worked on MTNR1B (melatonin receptor 1B) over 10 years ago!! This time, we focused on the functional analyses of rare variants of the renowned GLP1 receptor, a glamourous therapeutic target at the moment. https://lnkd.in/d2v5_WCi INSERM UFR3S - Université de Lille Centre national de la recherche scientifique Imperial College London Institut Pasteur de Lille Inserm Nord Ouest