A Magnetic Separation-Assisted High-Speed Homogenization Method for Large-Scale Production of Endosome-Derived Vesicles
Summary
Here, we describe a magnetic separation-assisted high-speed homogenization method for large-scale production of endosome-derived nanovesicles as a new type of exosome mimics (EMs) that share the same biological origin and similar structure, morphology, and protein composition of native extracellular vesicles (EVs).
Abstract
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have attracted significant attention in physiological and pathological research, disease diagnosis, and treatment; however, their clinical translation has been limited by the lack of scale-up manufacturing approaches. Therefore, this protocol provides a magnetic separation-assisted high-speed homogenization method for the large-scale production of endosome-derived nanovesicles as a new type of exosome mimics (EMs) derived from the endosomes, which have about 100-time higher yield than conventional ultracentrifugation method. In this method, magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) were internalized by parental cells via endocytosis and were subsequently accumulated within their endosomes. Then, MNPs-loaded endosomes were collected and purified by hypotonic treatment and magnetic separation. A high-speed homogenizer was utilized to break MNP-loaded endosomes into monodisperse nanovesicles. The resulting endosome-derived vesicles feature the same biological origin and structure, characterized by nanoparticle tracking analysis, transmission electron microscope, and western blotting. Their morphology and protein composition are similar to native EVs, indicating that EMs may potentially serve as a low-cost and high-yield surrogate of native EVs for clinical translations.
Introduction
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are small vesicles secreted by almost all cells with a size range of 30-150 nm, containing abundant bioactive substances. Depending on the cell of origin, EVs show high heterogeneity, possessing multiple components specific to parent cells1. EVs are released into body fluids and transported to distant sites where they are taken up by target cells for action2, which can be utilized to deliver a wide range of bioactive molecules and drugs for tissue repairing, tumor diagnosis and treatment, and immune modulation3,4. However, other biological nanoparticles (e.g., lipoproteins) and nanovesicles (e.g., EVs derived from non-endosomal pathways) with similar biophysical properties in body fluids inevitably affect EV isolation and purification. To date, ultracentrifugation remains the gold standard for EV isolation, and other isolation methods, including sucrose density gradient centrifugation, ultrafiltration, polyethylene glycol precipitation, chromatography, and immunomagnetic bead isolation, have been developed5. The current bottleneck limiting clinical translation and commercialization of EV therapeutics is the severe lack of isolation techniques that allow for highly scalable and reproducible isolation of EVs6,7,8. Traditional EV isolation techniques (e.g., ultracentrifugation and size exclusion chromatography) suffer from low yield (1 x 107-1 x 108/1 x 106 cells), long production cycle (24-48 h), poor reproducibility of product quality, and require expensive and energy-intensive production equipment that cannot meet the current clinical demand for EVs6.
Exosome mimics (EMs), synthetic surrogates of native EVs, have attracted important attention due to their highly similar structure, function, and scalability in production. The main source of EMs is from the direct extrusion of whole parental cells with continuous sectioning9,10, demonstrating potent biological functions as native EVs11,12. For instance, EMs derived from human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (hUCMSCs) exert similar wound-healing effects as native EVs and are richer in protein composition13. Though EMs derived from whole cells have the biological complexity of EVs, their main drawback is the heterogeneity of products because they are inevitably contaminated by various cellular organelles and cell debris. Protein localization analysis further revealed that EMs derived from whole-cell extrusion contain many non-EVs-specific proteins from mitochondria and the endoplasmic reticulum13. Moreover, most methods for manufacturing EMs still require ultracentrifugation, a highly time and energy-consuming process14. Considering the fact that exosomes are exclusively derived from cellular endosomes, we hypothesized that bioengineered endosome-derived nanovesicles may better recapitulate the biological homology between exosomes and EMs in comparison with the well-established cell membrane-derived EMs produced by whole cell extrusion method14. Nevertheless, the manufacture of endosome-derived nanovesicles is difficult due to the lack of viable approaches.
Clinical studies have been carried out by utilizing EVs as a surrogate of cell-free therapy and a nanoscale drug delivery system for the treatment of various diseases. For instance, EVs derived from bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells have been used to treat severe pneumonia caused by COVID-19 and have achieved promising results. Recently, genetically engineered EVs carrying CD24 proteins have also demonstrated potent therapeutic benefits for treating COVID-19 patients15,16. However, the clinical requirement of EV therapy still cannot be met with traditional isolation methods because of the low yield and cost. This study reports the large-scale production of endosome-derived nanovesicles via a magnetic separation-assisted high-speed homogenization approach. It takes advantage of the endocytosis pathway of MNPs to isolate MNP-loaded endosomes via magnetic separation, followed by high-speed homogenization to formulate endosomes into monodisperse nanovesicles. Since the types of endosomes collected by this protocol are diverse, further in-depth research is still required to establish good manufacturing practices (GMP) in the industry. This novel EM preparation approach is more time efficient (5 min of high-speed homogenization) to obtain nanovesicles homologous to native EVs. It produces exponentially more vesicles from the same amounts of cells than ultracentrifugation, which can be generally applied to various cell types.
Protocol
Representative Results
Discussion
As a surrogate of cell-free therapy and a nanoscale drug delivery system, EVs have yet to meet their clinical expectations, and a main obstacle is the lack of scalable and reproducible production and purification methods6. Therefore, various types of EMs have been developed as EV analogs with similar biological complexity14. To date, the most commonly used EM example is cell plasma membrane-derived nanovesicles. The preparation of such nanovesicles is relatively easy and st…
Disclosures
The authors have nothing to disclose.
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the use of instruments at the Shared Instrumentation Core Facility at the Institute of Basic Medicine and Cancer (IBMC), Chinese Academy of Sciences. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC; 82172598), the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province, China (LZ22H310001), the 551 Health Talent Training Project of Health Commission of Zhejiang Province, China, the Agricultural and Social Development Research Project of Hangzhou Municipal Science and Technology Bureau (2022ZDSJ0474) and Qiantang Interdisciplinary Research Grant.
Materials
| Annexin antibody | ABclonal | A11235 | Western blotting |
| BCA assay kit | Beyotime | P0012 | Protein concentration assay |
| Calnexin | GeneTex | HL1598 | Western blotting |
| CD63 antibody | ABclonal | A19023 | Western blotting |
| Cell lysis buffer for Western and IP | Beyotime | P0013 | Western blotting |
| Centrifuge | Beckman | Allegra X-30R | Cell centrifuge |
| CO2 incubator | Thermo | Cell culture | |
| Confocal laser scanning fluorescence microscopy | NIKON | A1 HD25 | Photo the fluorescence picture |
| DMEM basic (1x) | GIBCO | C11995500BT | Cell culture |
| Dynamic light scattering (DLS) | Malvern | Zetasizer Nano ZS ZEN3600 | Diameter analysis |
| Electric glass homogenizer | SCIENTZ(Ningbo, China) | DY89-II | Low-speed homogenization |
| Exosome-depleted FBS | system Bioscience | EXO-FBS-50A-1 | Cell culture |
| High-speed homogenizer | SCIENTZ(Ningbo, China) | XHF-DY | High-speed homogenization |
| Magnetic grate | Tuohe Electromechanical Technology (Shanghai, China) | NA | Magnetic separation |
| PKH26 Red Fluorescent Cell Linker Kit for General Cell Membrane Labeling | Sigma-Aldrich | PKH26GL-1KT | The kit contains PKH26 cell linker in ethanol and Diluent C |
| Polylysine-modified iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) | Zhongke Leiming Technology (Beijing, China) | Mag1100-10 | Cell culture |
| Potassium chloride | Aladdin | 7447-40-7 | Cell hypotonic treatment |
| Protease inhibitor cocktail | Beyotime | P1030 | Proteinase inhibitor |
| Sodium citrate | Aladdin | 7447-40-7 | Cell hypotonic treatment |
| Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) | JEOL | JEM-2100plus | Morphology image |
| Ultracentrifuge | Beckman | Optima XPN-100 | Exosome centrifuge |
| ZetaView nanoparticle tracking analyzers | Particle Metrix | PMX120 | Nanoparticle tracking analysis |
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