We explore the functional roles of extracellular vesicles in innate immunity. We have developed a protocol to isolate small extracellular vesicles, or sEVs, via differential ultracentrifugation and identify the peptidome by LC-MS/MS, revealing the key biological functions of the peptides in sEVs. The extracellular vesicles have been shown to mediate intercellular communication by transporting cargo to recipient cells, such as proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids.
By releasing antimicrobial components, they act the first line of defense against invading microbes in innate immunity. While differential ultracentrifugation yields highly pure small extracellular sEVs, it can be time-consuming and often results in low yields. In our study, these are major challenges for the stable identification of low-abundance peptides in the sEVs.
