Ciloa’s unique technology makes possible to produce any type of membrane proteins (GPCR, kinase receptor, ion channel, viral protein, etc.) with their fully native conformation on exosomes outside the cell. It allows to load exosomes with cytosolic proteins as well.
It is based on the discovery of an exosomal pilot peptide that contains motifs that interact with so-called ESCRT proteins.
The fusion of the exosomal pilot peptide with a membrane protein triggers its active sorting and secretion with exosomes. Ciloa successfully beneficiates of two natural cellular pathways :
- The ER/Golgi pathway that allows synthesis, correct folding, oligomerization and post-translational modifications of membrane proteins. At each step, the membrane proteins are submitted to strong quality controls.
- A specific sorting pathway involving ESCRT machinery that allows the secretion outside of the cells, of the membrane proteins imbedded into the membrane of natural nanovesicles called exosomes.
