Evaluation of the use of goat’s milk-derived exosomes as theragnostic platform in oncology

Abstract

Exosomes are biologically active nanovesicles from endosomal origin and lipid bilayer involved in cell communication, secreted by different types of cells and present in a wide variety of biological fluids. Due to their size, liposome-like characteristics and their strong relation with oncology, new applications for therapy and diagnosis are being explored in the field of medical imaging. During this thesis, the isolation, characterization and functionalization with fluorescent dyes has been performed to examine the possibility of using goat’s milk derived exosomes as theragnostic platform. With this purpose, the size, shape and charge of exosomes have been characterized, and the conjugation with two different fluorophores has proved to unalter their physicochemical properties. The biodistribution of functionalized exosomes, their toxicity and in vitro accumulation have been analyzed to evaluate that these nanovesicles can be used not only for diagnosis, but also for therapy and drug delivery in the future.