Caracterización celular y molecular de exosomas para su uso como biomarcadores de diagnóstico en retinoblastoma

Exosomes are small extracellular vesicles essential in intercellular communication; they act as vehicles of broad scope. They travel through body fluids and deliver important messages coded in DNA, RNA and proteins to all cells of the organisms. Message release via exosomes is associated with different pathological conditions including cancer. That is why its potential in diagnostic and therapeutic applications is growing. Here, exosomes were purified from clinical samples from patients with retinoblastoma and healthy individuals as controls. The exosomes recovered were characterized using cryogenic transmission electron microscopy. Moreover, the presence of CD63 and CD81 transmembrane proteins was confirmed using Western blot. This work describes a complete technique to isolate and characterize exosomes from human plasma, to be further used as retinoblastoma diagnostic biomarkers.