Present in a wide variety of body fluids - including the easily accessible urine, plasma, and saliva - and loaded with cargoes of general and unique nucleic acid, protein, and lipids, exosomes provide an exciting opportunity for the discovery of disease biomarkers.

SBI provides researchers with a broad variety of tools for characterizing exosomes - understanding their specific protein and nucleic acid makeup, and even tracking their protein and RNA cargo once the exosome has been internalized into a target cell.

RNA Profiling and Characterization
A wide variety of RNA types have been found to be carried within exosomes, including microRNA (miRNA), transfer RNA (tRNA), ribosomal RNA (rRNA), messenger RNA (mRNA), and additional structural and non-coding RNAs. (1) Some, if not many, of these RNAs are likely to be selectively packaged into exosomes, and can be used for biomarker discovery. SBI supports RNA profiling and characterization by qPCR and next-generation sequencing methods.

The ExoQuick Exosome Isolation and RNA Purification kit streamlines high-quality isolation of exosomal RNA with a validated column-based isolation protocol. These kits enable the 3' tailing and simultaneous tagging of both 5' and 3' ends during cDNA synthesis, generating initial strands that are ready for qPCR analysis. Alternatively, the cDNA can be amplified and used for microarray or NGS analysis. For researchers who would like RNA-seq data without having to perform the sequencing themselves, SBI provides an exosomal RNA-seq service. Abundance, RNA type, expression heatmaps and genomic mapping are all included in the service.

Protein Profiling and Characterization
Exosomes carry proteins both on their surface as well as fully enclosed within the vesicle. Like exosomal RNA, exosomal proteins play a key role in exosomal biology and are useful for biomarker discovery. In addition to the various FACS, and Antibody and ELISA kits and reagents SBI offers for detecting, quantitating, and characterizing exosomal proteins, SBI also provides a complete solution for preparing exosomes for analysis by mass spectrometry with our exosome proteomics custom service.

Conclusions
In this golden age of -omics analysis, SBI is ready to support your exosomal RNA and protein profiling needs. From isolation through characterization, SBI helps you make the most of exosomes for research and biomarker discovery. Contact us to learn more.

REFERENCES

1. Savina, A., Vidal, M. & Colombo, M. I. The exosome pathway in K562 cells is regulated by Rab11. J. Cell Sci. 115, 2505–2515 (2002).