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Breast cancer is the most common global malignancy and the second leading cause of cancer death. Early diagnosis of breast cancer increases the success rate of treatment with different treatment methods. However, in the advancing stages, both the treatment success rate decreases, and the application of chemotherapy or radiotherapy, which is one of the current treatment methods, may also have side effects on the patient. Therefore, it is necessary to find that personalized treatment models do not have side effects. Exosomes are natural nanoparticles and are also known as small extracellular vesicles which play important roles in intercellular communication, containing a wide variety of lipids, proteins, metabolites, RNAs and DNAs. This study aimed to investigate the apoptotic effects of exosomes obtained from an adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cell (AT-Exo) by precipitation method on human breast cancer MCF-7 and breast epithelial MCF10A at different concentrations by using Annexin V & Dead Cell method. Early apoptotic, late apoptotic, live and dead cells have been evaluated by Annexin V-FITC/PI staining in both cell lines and have found that the percentage of total apoptotic 58.817±4.2%, 56.37±9%, 70.9±4.1% in the 40x1010, 20x1010 ve 10x1010 AT-Exo mL-1 groups for 24h, 48h and 72h respectively. When MCF-7 cell groups given AT-Exo have been compared both among themselves and with MCF-7 and MCF10A cell groups not given AT-Exo, the difference has been statically significant depending on time and dose (p0.05). MCF10A and MCF-7 control groups have been evaluated, and no significant difference has been observed (p0.05). In conclusion, exosomes may have the potential capacity in cancer therapy by inducing apoptosis in cancer cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exosomes are nano-sized biomolecules that originate from the endosome, have an important role in immune modulation, and provide intercellular interaction. Exosomes have a wide variety of membrane proteins such as tetraspanins, proteins, Annexin and Rab proteins, and they are candidates for use in the treatment and diagnosis of infections, nervous system, cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. It is important for diagnosis and treatment that exosomes released from almost all body fluids can be isolated both homogeneously and in large numbers. Therefore, the purification of exosomes and obtaining specific exosomes for diagnosis is an important step in their production for therapeutic purposes. This study aimed to isolate the most and purest exosomes by using different isolation methods, ultracentrifugation, differential centrifugation-filtration and precipitation from commercial mesenchymal stem cell culture medium derived from wharton gel. Imaging, purity and size analysis of exosome characterization was determined for methods. As a result, it was observed that as a result of the isolation with the ultracentrifuge method, a much larger number of exosomes were isolated compared to both precipitation and differential centrifugationfiltration methods. According to the differential centrifugation-filtration method, it was observed that the number of exosomes was much less, but the exosomes were of the same purity as the ultracentrifuge method. Since exosomes play an active role in treating almost every disease, they provide ease of use in diagnosing diseases, and their good biodistribution, biocompatibility and low immunogenicity will also provide an advantage in the treatment phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a global health problem caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). SARS-CoV-2 infection may present with clinical pictures ranging from asymptomatic or mild forms to respiratory failure requiring intensive care follow-up and mechanical ventilation. The course of this disease with different clinical presentations raises many immunological questions. This study aimed to evaluate the serum levels of Annexin-1 (ANXA-1), Annexin-2 (ANXA-2) and bone morphogenetic protein-7 (BMP-7) in patients diagnosed with COVID-19 and to investigate whether these markers are associated with lung involvement. The study was conducted in 173 patients who were followed and treated with the diagnosis of COVID-19 and 51 healthy control group. Patients were primarily divided into two groups based on the presence of typical lung involvement (ground glass opacities, consolidation, and both) in the thoracic computed tomography (CT) scans for COVID-19. Those who found to have involvement in thoracic CT scans were divided into three groups as mild (< 33%), moderate (34-66%), and severe (> 67%) according to the extent of their lesions. Of the 173 patients included in the study, 130 had typical thoracic CT involvement for COVID-19, while 43 did not. ANXA-1, ANXA-2 and BMP-7 values were found to be higher in the patients than the control group (p= 0.001, p= 0.001, p= 0.001). ANXA-2 levels were higher in patients with thoracic CT involvement than those without thoracic CT involvement (p= 0.023). In addition, when the patients were evaluated according to their thorax CT involvement levels, it was found that as the lung involvement levels increased, ANXA-2 increased, ANXA-1 decreased, and BMP-7 levels did not change. While the increase in ANXA-2 was statistically significant, the decrease in ANXA-1 was not found statistically significant. When the relationship between the laboratory parameters and the thorax CT involvement level was evaluated; it was found that , the lymphocyte and thrombocyte counts decreased as the thorax CT involvement increased, and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), ferritin, procalcitonin (PCT), C-reactive protein (CRP), D-dimer and troponin levels were increased. While no significant correlation was found between ANXA-1 and BMP-7 and laboratory parameters, a positive correlation was found between ANXA-2 and leukocyte count, LDH, troponin, PCT, ferritin, D-dimer, and CRP. The data obtained in our study suggest that the ANXA-2 level at the time of admission was related with the lung involvement and the level of involvement of the disease. As a result, molecular studies are needed today to understand the pathogenesis of COVID-19 and to investigate new treatment targets. Evaluation of ANXA-2 level may be important in predicting the level of lung involvement due to COVID-19.