Prototyping Minimal Extracellular Vesicle Mimetics Using Cell-Free Synthesis.

ABSTRACT: The many surface proteins on extracellular vesicles (EVs) allow them to target recipient cells and modulate cellular responses. Despite their importance, relating surface protein and EV function is challenging due to surface protein heterogeneity. Here, we create a bottom-up, cell-free protein-synthesis platform to engineer artificial nanovesicles (ANVs) that display different EV surface protein domains. The platform is termed VESSEL (Vesicle Engineering Systems using Synthetic Expression and Loading). The surface proteins are selected based on proteomics data of native EVs from placental mesenchymal stem cells (PMSCs). To create VESSEL, we establish a protein anchor based on the bacteria membrane protein Aquaporin-Z. This anchor allows the flexibl

SUBMITTER: Henson T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12922925 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature