Development and Clinical Application of Tumor-derived Exosomes in Patients with Cancer

Abstract

: A tumor is an abnormal growth of cells within a tissue that can lead to death due to late diagnosis, poor prognosis, drug resistance, and finally enhanced metastasis formation. Exosomes are nanovesicles that have been derived from all the different cell types. These vesicles can transfer various molecules, including the distinct form of nucleic acids (mRNA, miRNA, and circRNA) and proteins. Tumor-derived exosomes (TEXs) have exceptionally important roles through multiple molecular and cellular pathways like progression, tumorigenesis, drug resistance, and as well as metastasis. TEXs are detectable in all body fluids, such as serum and urine, a convenient and non-invasive way to access these nano-sized vesicles. TEXs lead to the symptom expression of genetic aberrations in the tumor cell population, making them an accurate and sensitive biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of tumors. On the other hand, TEXs contain major histocompatibility complexes (MHCs) and play important dual roles in regulating tumor immune responses; they can mediate both immune activation and suppression through tumor-associated immunity. Despite numerous scientific studies, there are still many technical barriers to distinguish TEXs from non-tumor-derived exosomes. Removing exosomes lead to a wide difference in outcomes inside a patient's body. Hence, controversial pieces of evidence have demonstrated the vital role of TEXs as hopeful biomarkers for the early detection of cancers, evaluation of therapeutic effects, and monitoring of the patient.

Differential Immunomodulatory Effects of Head and Neck Cancer-Derived Exosomes on B Cells in the Presence of ATP

“…In addition to the nucleotides, TEX have been increasingly recognized as key players in cancer that are able to modulate immune cells. As previously described, TEX have shown dual effects in the TME [41,[77][78][79]. TEX were reported to elicit immunostimulatory as well as immunosuppressive effects, translating into anti-and pro-tumorigenic effects [41,[80][81][82].…”

Recent Advances of Circular RNAs as Biomarkers for Osteosarcoma

“… 58 In addition, exosomal circRNA carries the biological information related to the primary tumor, easily crosses various biological barriers, and exists in a large number of body fluids from different sources, which brings great hope for the diagnosis and treatment of osteosarcoma and can be used as a biomarker for early diagnosis and prognosis evaluation. 59 The isolation and detection of circRNA from tumor-associated exosomes need cutting-edge technology, so it is necessary to develop more accurate and straightforward detection methods to monitor and find new therapeutic targets.…”

Formation, contents, functions of exosomes and their potential in lung cancer diagnostics and therapeutics

“…Abundant evidence has shown that cells from individuals with diseases and healthy subjects secreted exosomes containing different proteins and RNAs into the circulation and body fluid, which makes exosomes applicable for liquid biopsy as potential diagnostic biomarkers. 119 , 120 Melo and coworkers found that exosomal proteoglycan glypican‐1 (GP1) was specifically present in the serum of patients with pancreatic cancer with high sensitivity and exosomal GP1 level is highly positively correlated with the tumor burden. Correspondingly, exosomal GP1 level is also correlated with survival of pre‐ and post‐surgical patients, indicating exosomal GP1 ideal to serve as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for pancreatic cancer.…”