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Development of acoustically isolated extracellular plasma vesicles for biomarker discovery in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

Lim, Hooi Ching LU ; Soneji, Shamit LU ; Pálmason, Róbert LU ; Lenhoff, Stig LU ; Laurell, Thomas LU and Scheding, Stefan LU (2021) In Biomarker research 9(1).
Abstract

Background: Infection and graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) are the major causes for mortality and morbidity of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). Plasma-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) contain disease-related proteins, DNAs and RNAs, and have recently been suggested as potential biomarker candidates for transplantation complications. However, EV isolation from small plasma volumes in clinical biomarker studies using conventional methods is challenging. We therefore investigated if EVs isolated by novel automated acoustic trapping could be developed as potential biomarkers for allo-HSCT complications by performing a clinical proof-of-principle study. Results: Plasma samples were collected from twenty... (More)

Background: Infection and graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) are the major causes for mortality and morbidity of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). Plasma-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) contain disease-related proteins, DNAs and RNAs, and have recently been suggested as potential biomarker candidates for transplantation complications. However, EV isolation from small plasma volumes in clinical biomarker studies using conventional methods is challenging. We therefore investigated if EVs isolated by novel automated acoustic trapping could be developed as potential biomarkers for allo-HSCT complications by performing a clinical proof-of-principle study. Results: Plasma samples were collected from twenty consecutive patients with high-risk/relapsed hematologic malignancies undergoing allo-HSCT before transplantation and post-transplant up to 12 weeks. EVs were isolated from small plasma sample volumes (150 μl) by an automated, acoustofluidic-based particle trapping device, which utilizes a local λ/2 ultrasonic standing wave in a borosilicate glass capillary to capture plasma EVs among pre-seeded polystyrene microbeads through sound scatter interactions. We found that EVs could be reliably isolated from all plasma samples (n = 173) and that EV numbers increased more than 2-fold in the majority of patients after transplantation. Also, sufficient quantities of RNA for downstream microRNA (miRNA) analysis were obtained from all samples and EV miRNA profiles were found to differ from whole plasma profiles. As a proof of principle, expression of platelet-specific miR-142-3p in EVs was shown to correlate with platelet count kinetics after transplantation as expected. Importantly, we identified plasma EV miRNAs that were consistently positively correlated with infection and GvHD, respectively, as well as miRNAs that were consistently negatively correlated with these complications. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that acoustic enrichment of EVs in a clinical biomarker study setting is feasible and that downstream analysis of acoustically-enriched EVs presents a promising tool for biomarker development in allo-HSCT. Certainly, these findings warrant further exploration in larger studies, which will have significant implications not only for biomarker studies in transplantation but also for the broad field of EV-based biomarker discovery.

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author
; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Acoustic trapping, Allo-HSCT, Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, Biomarker development, EVs, Graft-versus host disease, GvHD, Infection, Plasma extracellular vesicles, Transplantation
in
Biomarker research
volume
9
issue
1
article number
6
publisher
BioMed Central (BMC)
external identifiers
  • scopus:85100189341
  • pmid:33468257
ISSN
2050-7771
DOI
10.1186/s40364-020-00259-4
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
5150063d-3e22-44d4-9fac-18cf8ba664d4
date added to LUP
2021-02-11 08:48:59
date last changed
2024-06-14 09:51:01
@article{5150063d-3e22-44d4-9fac-18cf8ba664d4,
  abstract     = {{<p>Background: Infection and graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) are the major causes for mortality and morbidity of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). Plasma-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) contain disease-related proteins, DNAs and RNAs, and have recently been suggested as potential biomarker candidates for transplantation complications. However, EV isolation from small plasma volumes in clinical biomarker studies using conventional methods is challenging. We therefore investigated if EVs isolated by novel automated acoustic trapping could be developed as potential biomarkers for allo-HSCT complications by performing a clinical proof-of-principle study. Results: Plasma samples were collected from twenty consecutive patients with high-risk/relapsed hematologic malignancies undergoing allo-HSCT before transplantation and post-transplant up to 12 weeks. EVs were isolated from small plasma sample volumes (150 μl) by an automated, acoustofluidic-based particle trapping device, which utilizes a local λ/2 ultrasonic standing wave in a borosilicate glass capillary to capture plasma EVs among pre-seeded polystyrene microbeads through sound scatter interactions. We found that EVs could be reliably isolated from all plasma samples (n = 173) and that EV numbers increased more than 2-fold in the majority of patients after transplantation. Also, sufficient quantities of RNA for downstream microRNA (miRNA) analysis were obtained from all samples and EV miRNA profiles were found to differ from whole plasma profiles. As a proof of principle, expression of platelet-specific miR-142-3p in EVs was shown to correlate with platelet count kinetics after transplantation as expected. Importantly, we identified plasma EV miRNAs that were consistently positively correlated with infection and GvHD, respectively, as well as miRNAs that were consistently negatively correlated with these complications. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that acoustic enrichment of EVs in a clinical biomarker study setting is feasible and that downstream analysis of acoustically-enriched EVs presents a promising tool for biomarker development in allo-HSCT. Certainly, these findings warrant further exploration in larger studies, which will have significant implications not only for biomarker studies in transplantation but also for the broad field of EV-based biomarker discovery.</p>}},
  author       = {{Lim, Hooi Ching and Soneji, Shamit and Pálmason, Róbert and Lenhoff, Stig and Laurell, Thomas and Scheding, Stefan}},
  issn         = {{2050-7771}},
  keywords     = {{Acoustic trapping; Allo-HSCT; Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation; Biomarker development; EVs; Graft-versus host disease; GvHD; Infection; Plasma extracellular vesicles; Transplantation}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  publisher    = {{BioMed Central (BMC)}},
  series       = {{Biomarker research}},
  title        = {{Development of acoustically isolated extracellular plasma vesicles for biomarker discovery in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40364-020-00259-4}},
  doi          = {{10.1186/s40364-020-00259-4}},
  volume       = {{9}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}