EVpedia: a community web portal for extracellular vesicles research

Motivation: Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are spherical bilayered proteolipids, harboring various bioactive molecules. Due to the complexity of the vesicular nomenclatures and components, online searches for EV-related publications and vesicular components are currently challenging. Results: We present an improved version of EVpedia, a public database for EVs research. This community web portal contains a database of publications and vesicular components, identification of orthologous vesicular components, bioinformatic tools and a personalized function. EVpedia includes 6879 publications, 172 080 vesicular components from 263 high-throughput datasets, and has been accessed more than 65 000 times from more than 750 cities. In addition, about 350 members from 73 international research groups have participated in developing EVpedia. This free web-based database might serve as a useful resource to stimulate the emerging field of EV research.X1110478Ysciescopu

Self-assembly of actin scaffolds on lipid microbubbles

Microbubbles offer unique properties as combined carriers of therapeutic payloads and diagnostic agents. Here we report on the development of novel microbubble architectures that in addition to the usual lipid shell have an actin cytoskeletal cortex assembled on their exterior. We show, using atomic force microscopy that this biomimetic coating creates a thin mesh that allows tuning of the mechanical properties of microbubbles and that the nature of actin assembly is determined by the fluidity of the lipid layer. Further, we show that it is possible to attach payloads and targeting-ligands to the actin scaffold. Resistance to gas permeation showed that the additional actin layer reduces gas diffusion across the shell and thus increases bubble lifetime. This study demonstrates a one step method to creating more complex microbubble architectures, which would be capable of further modification and tuning through the inclusion of actin binding proteins