Browsing by Author "Marreiros, Catarina Isabel Lousada"
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- Clinical application of extracellular vesicles in vascular calcificationPublication . Marreiros, Catarina Isabel Lousada; Simes, Dina; Viegas, Carla Alexandra São BentoCellular communication and signaling are essential for the organization, preservation, and proper functioning of different cell types in multicellular organisms. Recently the study of the mechanisms for intercellular communication mediated by extracellular vesicles (EVs) has been the focus of research within the scientific community. Extracellular vesicles exert diverse physiological and pathophysiological functions by serving as vehicles of horizontal transfer of protein, lipids, DNA, and RNA between cells. These cellular interaction processes can influence, among others, the developmental patterning of tissues, as the case of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) differentiation with the generation of EVs playing an important role in vessel calcification. These calcification-competent EVs are thought to create the first nidus for calcification through the clustering of calcium-phosphate (Ca/P) minerals within the extracellular matrix of blood vessels, resembling skeletal mineralization. Extracellular vesicles are a promise and fresh therapeutic area for the delivery of different synthetic and biological molecules in cellular therapy. Indeed, EVs-based drug delivery is an experimental field that has evolved greatly in the past few years, with an especial attention for miRNA therapeutics. The potential advantages over the existing synthetic delivery systems are attracting much attention, adding a new pharmacological mean of intervention using EVs as an encouraging drug transportation system in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. However, in order to speed up the clinical application of EVs as the next generation of targeted gene delivery vehicles, much work still needs to be done focusing the features of EVs-mediated vascular calcification in order to highlight potential therapeutic targets within this pathology and achieve progress in diagnosis and treatment in the cardiovascular filed.