Exosomes: A Paradigm in Drug Development against Cancer and Infectious Diseases

Abstract

Extracellular vesicles are small single lipid membrane entity secreted by eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells and play an important role in intercellular signaling and nutrient transport. The last few decades have witnessed a plethora of research on these vesicles owing to their ability to answer many hidden facts at the supramolecular level. These extracellular vesicles have attracted the researchers because they act as shuttle agents to transfer biomolecules/drugs between cells. Recently, studies have shown the application of exosomes in tumor therapy and infectious disease control. The present review article shows the importance of exosomes in cancer biology and infectious disease diagnoses and therapy and provides comprehensive account of exosomes biogenesis, extraction, molecular profiling, and application in drug delivery.

Biological Function of Exosomes as Diagnostic Markers and Therapeutic Delivery Vehicles in Carcinogenesis and Infectious Diseases

“…Due to this transfer, the antiviral retinoic acid-inducible gene 1 enzyme signaling can be activated to regulate the development of therapy-resistance tumor-initiating cells [144,145]. Several studies have reported that cancer-derived exosomes play a major role in drug resistance, metastasis, angiogenesis, tumorigenesis, tumor growth, and tumor immune escape, as depicted in Figure 6 [144,146,147]. .…”

“…Tumorigenesis is the process that occurs when normal healthy cells transform into cancerous cells. During this process, these cells can secrete exosomes [146,147]. Several studies have reported that neoplastic transformation of adiposederived stem cells was induced in response to prostate cancer-derived exosomes [146,161].…”

“…During this process, these cells can secrete exosomes [146,147]. Several studies have reported that neoplastic transformation of adiposederived stem cells was induced in response to prostate cancer-derived exosomes [146,161]. Also, studies have reported that these exosomes deliver mRNA molecules and oncogenic proteins to recipient cells; which subsequently induced tumor formation [146,162].…”

“…Tumor cells secrete many exosomes [163][164][165][166]. Supporting evidence has shown that exosomes released from tumors promote the formation of tumor blood vessels that support tumor growth and extension [144,146,149]. Glioblastoma multiforme cell-derived exosomes have been proposed to promote tumor growth by transporting RNA into recipient cells in the microenvironment [142,143].…”

Microfluidic device for the analysis of MDR cancerous cell-derived exosomes’ response to nanotherapy

“…These studies demonstrated the exosomal pathway effects through small drug efflux during the occurrences of MDR. However, the performance of exosomes in MDR overcoming nanotherapy and the interfering of nanoparticles on exosome generation and secretion still need to be evaluated (Oves et al 2018).…”