Ozge Cevik

Adnan Menderes University, School of Medicine, Aydin, Turkey

Title: Should exosomes be used in diagnosis or treatment in gynecological cancers?

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Biography

Ozge Cevik is a Professor at the School of Medicine, Adnan Menderes University in Turkey. Dr. Cevik completed her bachelor, master and PhD in pharmaceutical biochemistry in health sciences at the University of Marmara. She completed postdoctoral research at Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in the USA. her research program has focused on cancer targeted therapy, exosomes in cancer mechanism, and her research group currently studies molecular mechanism(s) and anti-cancer gene therapy for targeting cancer stem cells, recombinant protein productions for cancer vaccine. her studies on innovative drug research and biomarkers have been published in international high-impact, important molecular biochemistry and medicinal chemistry journals.

Research Interest

Exosomes are the smallest of the vesicles released from cells. Although it is known that it comes from many additional sources in circulation, the number of cancer patients is increasing, and they have a role in metastasis to cells. The secretion of exosomes in gynecological cancers may differ in terms of spread and distribution. If exosomes are made functional after being obtained from different sources, they can sometimes even be used in therapy. Our study isolated mesenchymal stem cell-derived (MSC-Exo) and cancer cell-derived exosomes (HeLa-Exo). We examined the structure and size and loaded taxane group anti-cancer drugs. We used docetaxel and paclitaxel in the drugs we loaded and incubated HeLa cervical cancer cells in exosomes over time. The number of MSC-Exo is less than the cells released from HeLa-Exo. However, MSC-Exo is larger in size and drug loading capacity than HeLa-Exo. When the apoptotic effects of cells are examined, drugs given in exosomes are more effective at lower doses than docetaxel and paclitaxel given alone. As a result, using both mesenchymal stem cells and cancer cell-derived exosomes is safe according to in vitro results regarding drug transport and reaching target cells in gynecological cancers. For clinics, these results will contribute to the development of new treatments