A comprehensive analysis of supermere, exomere, and extracellular vesicle isolation and cargo in colorectal cancer

Abstract

Biofluids contain a heterogeneous mixture of extracellular vesicles and non-vesicular nanoparticles (including exomeres and supermeres) that transport a diverse array of proteins, RNA, and lipids. Our previous efforts to characterize the contents of these carriers in colorectal cancer relied on 2D culture systems requiring large-scale setups and time-consuming ultracentrifugation-based isolation. To streamline this process, we have combined 3D hollow-fiber bioreactor production and fast-protein liquid chromatography-based size-exclusion chromatography. Here, we compare the impact of culture methods and purification strategies on small extracellular vesicle, exomere, and supermere cargo. Proteomic analyses show consistently distinct profiles for extracellular vesicles, exomeres, and supermeres regardless of culture conditions or isolation method. In contrast, these two variables influence small RNAs, their base modifications, and lipidomic profiles. We present an online tool to query these and future secretome datasets (https://superomics.shinyapps.io/browse).

Keywords: CP: Cancer; CP: Genomics; EV; FPLC; NVEP; RNA-seq; SEC; exomeres; exosomes; extracellular RNA; extracellular vesicles; hollow fiber bioreactor; lipidomics; non-vesicular extracellular nanoparticles; proteomics; sEV; secreted RNAs; supermeres.