Extracellular Vesicles as Mediators of Cancer Disease and as Nanosystems in Theranostic Applications
Journal
Cancers
ISSN
2072-6694
Date Issued
2021
Author(s)
Renato Burgos-Ravanal
América Campos
Magda C. Díaz-Vesga
María Fernanda González
Daniela León
Lorena Lobos-González
Lisette Leyton
Marcelo J. Kogan
Andrew F. G. Quest
Type
Resource Types::text::journal::journal article
URL Institutional Repository
Abstract
<jats:p>Cancer remains a leading cause of death worldwide despite decades of intense efforts to understand the molecular underpinnings of the disease. To date, much of the focus in research has been on the cancer cells themselves and how they acquire specific traits during disease development and progression. However, these cells are known to secrete large numbers of extracellular vesicles (EVs), which are now becoming recognized as key players in cancer. EVs contain a large number of different molecules, including but not limited to proteins, mRNAs, and miRNAs, and they are actively secreted by many different cell types. In the last two decades, a considerable body of evidence has become available indicating that EVs play a very active role in cell communication. Cancer cells are heterogeneous, and recent evidence reveals that cancer cell-derived EV cargos can change the behavior of target cells. For instance, more aggressive cancer cells can transfer their “traits” to less aggressive cancer cells and convert them into more malignant tumor cells or, alternatively, eliminate those cells in a process referred to as “cell competition”. This review discusses how EVs participate in the multistep acquisition of specific traits developed by tumor cells, which are referred to as “the hallmarks of cancer” defined by Hanahan and Weinberg. Moreover, as will be discussed, EVs play an important role in drug resistance, and these more recent advances may explain, at least in part, why pharmacological therapies are often ineffective. Finally, we discuss literature proposing the use of EVs for therapeutic and prognostic purposes in cancer.</jats:p>
Cite this document
Burgos-Ravanal, R., Campos, A., Díaz-Vesga, M. C., González, M. F., León, D., Lobos-González, L., Leyton, L., Kogan, M. J., & Quest, A. F. G. (2021). Extracellular vesicles as mediators of cancer disease and as nanosystems in theranostic applications. Cancers, 13(13), 3324. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers13133324
Subjects
drug resistance
;
extracellular vesicles
;
hallmarks of cancer
;
theranostics
;
biogenesis
;
cancer resistance
;
cell communication
;
cell death
;
cell invasion
;
cell proliferation
;
cell surface
;
exosome
;
gene mutation
;
genomic instability
;
human
;
intracellular signaling
;
malignant neoplasm
;
metastasis
;
nonhuman
;
review
;
theranostic nanomedicine
;
tumor vascularization