PhD Graduate Student Literature Presentation: PhD Student, Jonalyn Herce – “The Role of Exosomes for Non-Traditional Technologies Toward Multi-Parametric Approaches for SARS-CoV-2”

Please join us as PhD in Applied Life Sciences student, Jonalyn Herce presents “The Role of Exosomes for Non-Traditional Technologies Toward Multi-Parametric Approaches for SARS-CoV-2”

“SARS-CoV-2 is highly infectious and deadly, causing severe lung inflammation and acute respiratory distress syndrome, and among these cases, an increased risk of multiple organ failure. Current diagnostic platforms, such as nucleic acid tests (NATs) for detecting SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA, only provide information regarding a current infection but do not provide insight on the rate of viral infection. In addition, NATs do not provide information on immunity or past infections that immunoassays provide. Therefore, current diagnostics of SARS-CoV-2 focus on the early pathogen identification but lack information on disease severity or course that yield to the mortality rates currently seen. Studies have shown that exosomes transfer viral components of infected cells to healthy cells, potentially making them more susceptible to viral infections – suggesting exosomal role in viral infectivity without the need of direct cell-cell interaction. Mechanistically, SARS-CoV-2 gains entry to respiratory epithelial cells through binding of the spike (S) protein to the Angiotensin Convertase Enzyme 2 (ACE 2) receptors.  Due to the abundance of ACE2 in the cell membranes of many organ systems, the virus quickly gains entry to multiple organ systems, causing further life-threatening complications. Furthermore, exosomes are known to transfer ACE2 from a parent cell expressing ACE2 on their surface to a recipient cell. These studies beg the question of whether exosomes have the potential to track viral infectivity for SARS-CoV-2 given an identification of early biomarkers associated with disease severity.”

Date: Wednesday, February 10, 2021 – 12:00 – 1:00 p.m.

Location: Via Zoom: https://kgi.zoom.us/j/93879485834