Bioengineering of Lipid Cargo in Extracellular Vesicles: Immunology Function

Abstract:
Lipids, and particularly sphingolipids, are central to cellular structure, signaling, and disease mechanisms. Their remarkable structural diversity makes them both biologically significant and analytically challenging. Recent advances in lipidomics, a branch of metabolomics, now allow for comprehensive investigation of lipid profiles in complex biological systems. Using high-resolution liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), targeted and untargeted approaches have been developed to enhance sensitivity, accuracy, and lipid class coverage. These strategies are crucial not only for profiling lipids in biofluids but also for studying extracellular vesicles (EVs), key mediators of intercellular communication. By integrating optimized pre-analytical extraction methods with powerful MS-based platforms, lipidomics provides unique opportunities to explore lipid cargo and function, involved in immune regulation, and their roles in health and disease. This lecture will highlight our recent methodological advances and applications of lipidomics, getting its potential for biomarker discovery, mechanistic insights, and translational impact in biomedical research.

Language: English