Ex vivo nanoscale abluminal mapping of putative cargo receptors at the blood-brain barrier of expanded brain capillaries

Receptor mediated transport of therapeutic antibodies through the blood-brain barrier (BBB) give promise for drug delivery to alleviate brain diseases. We developed a low-cost method to obtain nanoscale localization data of putative cargo receptors. We combine existing ex vivo isolation methods with expansion microscopy (ExM) to analyze receptor localizations in brain microcapillaries. Using this approach, we show how to analyze receptor localizations in endothelial cells of brain microcapillaries in relation to the abluminal marker collagen IV. By choosing the thinnest capillaries, microcapillaries for analysis, we ensure the validity of collagen IV as an abluminal marker. With this tool, we confirm transferrin receptors as well as sortilin to be both luminally and abluminally localized. Furthermore, we identify basigin to be an abluminal receptor. Our methodology can be adapted to analyze different types of isolated brain capillaries and we anticipate that this approach will be very useful for the research community to gain new insight into cargo receptor trafficking in the slim brain endothelial cells to elucidate novel paths for future drug design.