Extracellular vesicles (EVs), through their complex cargo, can reflect the state of their cell of origin and change the functions and phenotypes of other cells. These features indicate strong biomarker and therapeutic potential and have generated broad interest, as evidenced by the steady year‐on‐year increase in the numbers of scientific publications about EVs. Important advances have been made in EV metrology and in understanding and applying EV biology. However, hurdles remain to realising the potential of EVs in domains ranging from basic biology to clinical applications due to challenges in EV nomenclature, separation from non‐vesicular extracellular particles, characterisation and functional studies. To address the challenges and opportunities in this rapidly evolving field, the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV) updates its ‘Minimal Information for Studies of Extracellular Vesicles’, which was first published in 2014 and then in 2018 as MISEV2014 and MISEV2018, respectively. The goal of the current document, MISEV2023, is to provide researchers with an updated snapshot of available approaches and their advantages and limitations for production, separation and characterisation of EVs from multiple sources, including cell culture, body fluids and solid tissues. In addition to presenting the latest state of the art in basic principles of EV research, this document also covers advanced techniques and approaches that are currently expanding the boundaries of the field. MISEV2023 also includes new sections on EV release and uptake and a brief discussion of in vivo approaches to study EVs. Compiling feedback from ISEV expert task forces and more than 1000 researchers, this document conveys the current state of EV research to facilitate robust scientific discoveries and move the field forward even more rapidly.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative diseases. It is characterized by the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta of the brain. Another feature is represented by the formation in these cells of inclusions called Lewy bodies (LB), principally constituted by fibrillar α-synuclein (αSyn). This protein is considered a key element in the aetiology of a group of neurodegenerative disorders termed synucleinopathies, which include PD, but the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved are not completely clear. It is established that the inflammatory process plays a crucial role in the pathogenesis and/or progression of PD; moreover, it is known that aggregated αSyn, released by neurons, activates microglia cells to produce pro-inflammatory mediators, such as IL-1β. IL-1β is one of the strongest pro-inflammatory cytokines; it is produced as an inactive mediator, and its maturation and activation requires inflammasome activation. In particular, the NLRP3 inflammasome is activated by a wide variety of stimuli, among which are crystallized and particulate material. In this work, we investigated the possibility that IL-1β production, induced by fibrillar αSyn, is involved the inflammasome activation. We demonstrated the competence of monomeric and fibrillar αSyn to induce synthesis of IL-1β, through TLR2 interaction; we found that the secretion of the mature cytokine was a peculiarity of the fibrillated protein. Moreover, we observed that the secretion of IL-1β involves NLRP3 inflammasome activation. The latter relies on the phagocytosis of fibrillar αSyn, followed by increased ROS production and cathepsin B release into the cytosol. Taken together, our data support the notion that fibrillar αSyn, likely released by neuronal degeneration, acts as an endogenous trigger inducing a strong inflammatory response in PD.

Human α-Synuclein (αSyn) is a natively unfolded protein whose aggregation into amyloid fibrils is involved in the pathology of Parkinson disease. A full comprehension of the structure and dynamics of early intermediates leading to the aggregated states is an unsolved problem of essential importance to researchers attempting to decipher the molecular mechanisms of αSyn aggregation and formation of fibrils. Traditional bulk techniques used so far to solve this problem point to a direct correlation between αSyn's unique conformational properties and its propensity to aggregate, but these techniques can only provide ensemble-averaged information for monomers and oligomers alike. They therefore cannot characterize the full complexity of the conformational equilibria that trigger the aggregation process. We applied atomic force microscopy–based single-molecule mechanical unfolding methodology to study the conformational equilibrium of human wild-type and mutant αSyn. The conformational heterogeneity of monomeric αSyn was characterized at the single-molecule level. Three main classes of conformations, including disordered and “β-like” structures, were directly observed and quantified without any interference from oligomeric soluble forms. The relative abundance of the “β-like” structures significantly increased in different conditions promoting the aggregation of αSyn: the presence of Cu²⁺, the pathogenic A30P mutation, and high ionic strength. This methodology can explore the full conformational space of a protein at the single-molecule level, detecting even poorly populated conformers and measuring their distribution in a variety of biologically important conditions. To the best of our knowledge, we present for the first time evidence of a conformational equilibrium that controls the population of a specific class of monomeric αSyn conformers, positively correlated with conditions known to promote the formation of aggregates. A new tool is thus made available to test directly the influence of mutations and pharmacological strategies on the conformational equilibrium of monomeric αSyn. Natively unstructured proteins defy the classical “one sequence–one structure” paradigm of protein science. In pathological conditions, monomers of these proteins can aggregate in the cell, a process that underlies neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer and Parkinson. A key step in the aggregation process—the formation of misfolded intermediates—remains obscure. To shed light on this process, we characterized the folding and conformational diversity of αSyn, a natively unstructured protein involved in Parkinson disease, by mechanically stretching single molecules of this protein and recording their mechanical properties. These experiments permitted us to observe directly and quantify three main classes of conformations that, under in vitro physiological conditions, exist simultaneously in the αSyn sample. We found that one class of conformations, “β-like” structures, is directly related to αSyn aggregation. In fact, their relative abundance increases drastically in three different conditions known to promote the formation of αSyn fibrils. We expect that a critical concentration of αSyn with a “β-like” structure must be reached to trigger fibril formation. This critical concentration is therefore controlled by a chemical equilibrium. Novel pharmacological strategies can now be tailored to act upstream, before the aggregation process ensues, by targeting this equilibrium. To this end, single-molecule force spectroscopy can be an effective tool to tailor and test new pharmacological agents.