The role of extracellular vesicles in signalling between cardiovascular cell types in metabolic diseases and in cardioprotective therapies

We are to understand how EVs induce and affect cardiovascular diseases. To this end, we investigate its changes in disease models of the cardiovascular system and in its comorbidities, e.g., metabolic diseases. We analyze the change of EV characteristics in preclinical animal and cell culture models as well as in clinical samples. We believe that a better understanding on the role of EVs in the pathophysiology of these diseases will lead to novel diagnostic and therapeutic solutions.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) represent a promising therapeutic option for the prevention and treatment cardiovascular diseases (10.3390/ijms21207687). Our primary objective is to establish EV-based therapies that are well-suited for addressing heart failure and other cardiovascular conditions. For this purpose, we investigate EVs derived from mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) which have shown promising regenerative results (10.3390/ijms23126480). We also develop relevant in vitro and cell-based assays for the accurate quantification of the regenerative efficacy of various EV isolates.

We have developed methods for the isolation of highly pure EVs from biofluids. These are based on ultracentrifugation followed by size exclusion chromatography (10.1371/journal.pone.0145686) or density gradient ultracentrifugation coupled with bind-elute size exclusion chromatography. This project aims to improve these approaches to eliminate impurities from blood plasma-derived EV preparations. In parallel, together with Pharmahungary, we run an engineering program to develop the equipment that utilizes our isolation technology.