Intracellular uptake of and sensing with SERS-active hybrid exosomes

in Methods, Publications March 31, 2020

Exosomes, known as novel biocompatible vesicles, have attracted much interest. This makes it urgent to observe exosomes at the visually cellular or subcellular levels.

Researchers from the University of Shanghai for Science & Technology constructed a new kind of exosome/metal nanohybrid and employed a surface-enhanced Raman scattering technique to study the intracellular behaviors of hybrid exosomes. Experimental results revealed that hybrid exosomes were internalized mainly through clathrin-mediated endocytosis and thereafter transported to lysosomes. The metal nanoparticles in the hybrid were demonstrated to have little effect on exosomal characteristics while serving as surface-enhanced Raman scattering generators.

Intracellular tracking of the surface-enhanced Raman scattering-active exosomes

Au NP: Gold nanoparticle; SERS: Surface-enhanced Raman scattering

This study is significant for removing the barrier in designing programmable exosome/metal nanohybrids, which will greatly improve the utility of exosomal nanohybrids for therapeutics, such as multifunctional drug-delivery systems.

Chen H, Luo C, Yang M, Li J, Ma P, Zhang X. (2020) Intracellular uptake of and sensing with SERS-active hybrid exosomes: insight into a role of metal nanoparticles. Nanomedicine (Lond) [Epub ahead of print]. [article]