title: Lipid-Targeting Peptide Probes for Extracellular Vesicles.
abstract: Extracellular vesicles released from cells are under intense investigation for their roles in cell-cell communication and cancer progression. However, individual vesicles have been difficult to probe as their small size renders them invisible by conventional light microscopy. However, as a consequence of their small size these vesicles possess highly curved lipid membranes that offer an unconventional target for curvature-sensing probes. In this article, we present a strategy for using peptide-based biosensors to detect highly curved membranes and the negatively charged membrane lipid phosphatidylserine, we delineate several assays used to validate curvature- and lipid-targeting mechanisms, and we explore potential applications in probing extracellular vesicles released from sources such as apoptotic cells, cancer cells, or activated platelets. J. Cell. Physiol. 231: 2327-2332, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado.|BioFrontiers Institute, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado.
authors.forename: Aaron D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Flynn
authors.affiliation: BioFrontiers Institute, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado.|Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado.
authors.forename: Hang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yin
mesh_terms: D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000378:metabolism; D000067128:Extracellular Vesicles / Q000378:metabolism*; D008055:Lipids / Q000737:chemistry*; D008954:Models, Biological; D015335:Molecular Probes / Q000378:metabolism*; D010455:Peptides / Q000378:metabolism*; D010718:Phosphatidylserines / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D008055:Lipids; D015335:Molecular Probes; D010455:Peptides; D010718:Phosphatidylserines