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Lai, Charles

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Lai

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Charles

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Lai, Charles
Author's Publications: search.filters.isAuthorOfPublication.b392cc07-9b33-415a-987c-a8e14eebdd0e

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    Meeting report: discussions and preliminary findings on extracellular RNA measurement methods from laboratories in the NIH Extracellular RNA Communication Consortium
    (Co-Action Publishing, 2015) Laurent, Louise C.; Abdel-Mageed, Asim B.; Adelson, P. David; Arango, Jorge; Balaj, Leonora; Breakefield, Xandra; Carlson, Elizabeth; Carter, Bob S.; Majem, Blanca; Chen, Clark C.; Cocucci, Emanuele; Danielson, Kirsty; Courtright, Amanda; Das, Saumya; Elmageed, Zakaria Y. Abd; Enderle, Daniel; Ezrin, Alan; Ferrer, Marc; Freedman, Jane; Galas, David; Gandhi, Roopali; Huentelman, Matthew J.; Van Keuren-Jensen, Kendall; Kalani, Yashar; Kim, Yong; Krichevsky, Anna; Lai, Charles; Lal-Nag, Madhu; Laurent, Clara D.; Leonardo, Trevor; Li, Feng; Malenica, Ivana; Mondal, Debasis; Nejad, Parham; Patel, Tushar; Raffai, Robert L.; Rubio, Renee; Skog, Johan; Spetzler, Robert; Sun, Jie; Tanriverdi, Kahraman; Vickers, Kasey; Wang, Liang; Wang, Yaoyu; Wei, Zhiyun; Weiner, Howard; Wong, David; Yan, Irene K.; Yeri, Ashish; Gould, Stephen
    Extracellular RNAs (exRNAs) have been identified in all tested biofluids and have been associated with a variety of extracellular vesicles, ribonucleoprotein complexes and lipoprotein complexes. Much of the interest in exRNAs lies in the fact that they may serve as signalling molecules between cells, their potential to serve as biomarkers for prediction and diagnosis of disease and the possibility that exRNAs or the extracellular particles that carry them might be used for therapeutic purposes. Among the most significant bottlenecks to progress in this field is the lack of robust and standardized methods for collection and processing of biofluids, separation of different types of exRNA-containing particles and isolation and analysis of exRNAs. The Sample and Assay Standards Working Group of the Extracellular RNA Communication Consortium is a group of laboratories funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health to develop such methods. In our first joint endeavour, we held a series of conference calls and in-person meetings to survey the methods used among our members, placed them in the context of the current literature and used our findings to identify areas in which the identification of robust methodologies would promote rapid advancements in the exRNA field.
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    Biogenesis, delivery, and function of extracellular RNA
    (Co-Action Publishing, 2015) Patton, James G.; Franklin, Jeffrey L.; Weaver, Alissa M.; Vickers, Kasey; Zhang, Bing; Coffey, Robert J.; Ansel, K. Mark; Blelloch, Robert; Goga, Andrei; Huang, Bo; L'Etoille, Noelle; Raffai, Robert L.; Lai, Charles; Krichevsky, Anna; Mateescu, Bogdan; Greiner, Vanille J.; Hunter, Craig; Voinnet, Olivier; McManus, Michael T.
    The Extracellular RNA (exRNA) Communication Consortium was launched by the National Institutes of Health to focus on the extent to which RNA might function in a non-cell-autonomous manner. With the availability of increasingly sensitive tools, small amounts of RNA can be detected in serum, plasma, and other bodily fluids. The exact mechanism(s) by which RNA can be secreted from cells and the mechanisms for the delivery and uptake by recipient cells remain to be determined. This review will summarize current knowledge about the biogenesis and delivery of exRNA and outline projects seeking to understand the functional impact of exRNA.
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    Visualization and tracking of tumour extracellular vesicle delivery and RNA translation using multiplexed reporters
    (Nature Pub. Group, 2015) Lai, Charles; Kim, Edward Y.; Badr, Christian; Weissleder, Ralph; Mempel, Thorsten; Tannous, Bakhos; Breakefield, Xandra
    Accurate spatiotemporal assessment of extracellular vesicle (EV) delivery and cargo RNA translation requires specific and robust live-cell imaging technologies. Here we engineer optical reporters to label multiple EV populations for visualization and tracking of tumour EV release, uptake and exchange between cell populations both in culture and in vivo. Enhanced green fluorescence protein (EGFP) and tandem dimer Tomato (tdTomato) were fused at NH2-termini with a palmitoylation signal (PalmGFP, PalmtdTomato) for EV membrane labelling. To monitor EV-RNA cargo, transcripts encoding PalmtdTomato were tagged with MS2 RNA binding sequences and detected by co-expression of bacteriophage MS2 coat protein fused with EGFP. By multiplexing fluorescent and bioluminescent EV membrane reporters, we reveal the rapid dynamics of both EV uptake and translation of EV-delivered cargo mRNAs in cancer cells that occurred within 1-hour post-horizontal transfer between cells. These studies confirm that EV-mediated communication is dynamic and multidirectional between cells with delivery of functional mRNA.
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    Role of Exosomes/Microvesicles in the Nervous System and Use in Emerging Therapies
    (Frontiers Research Foundation, 2012) Lai, Charles; Breakefield, Xandra
    Extracellular membrane vesicles (EMVs) are nanometer sized vesicles, including exosomes and microvesicles capable of transferring DNAs, mRNAs, microRNAs, non-coding RNAs, proteins, and lipids among cells without direct cell-to-cell contact, thereby representing a novel form of intercellular communication. Many cells in the nervous system have been shown to release EMVs, implicating their active roles in development, function, and pathologies of this system. While substantial progress has been made in understanding the biogenesis, biophysical properties, and involvement of EMVs in diseases, relatively less information is known about their biological function in the normal nervous system. In addition, since EMVs are endogenous vehicles with low immunogenicity, they have also been actively investigated for the delivery of therapeutic genes/molecules in treatment of cancer and neurological diseases. The present review summarizes current knowledge about EMV functions in the nervous system under both physiological and pathological conditions, as well as emerging EMV-based therapies that could be applied to the nervous system in the foreseeable future.