Current Research Projects
- Explore the role of chemoexosomes loaded with heparanase in promoting chemoresistance in myeloma.
- Delineate the role of hypoxia induced exosomes secreted by myeloma and host cells in angiogenesis.
- Determine the role of shed syndecan-1 in epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) and the resulting enhanced chemoresistance in myeloma cells.
We continue to work on the basic mechanisms of heparanase action and have discovered that heparanase regulates both the secretion and composition of tumor exosomes. These exosomes likely play an important role in regulating intercellular signaling (between tumor and host cells) and they may also harbor biomarkers useful for disease detection, staging and prognosis. In addition, we discovered that multiple myeloma cells exposed to frontline chemotherapeutic drugs such as Bortizomib, Carfilzomib and Melphalan enhances the secretion of exosomes loaded with a high level heparanase. We call these therapy induced exosomes “chemoexosomes” and demonstrated that they promote aggressive myeloma disease by delivering heparanase to myeloma and host cells.
