A comprehensive database of exosome molecular biomarkers and disease-gene associations

Abstract

Exosomes play a crucial role in intercellular communication and can be used as biomarkers for diagnostic and therapeutic clinical applications. However, systematic studies in cancer-associated exosomal nucleic acids remain a big challenge. Here, we developed ExMdb, a comprehensive database of exosomal nucleic acid biomarkers and disease-gene associations curated from published literature and high-throughput datasets. We performed a comprehensive curation of exosome properties including 4,586 experimentally supported gene-disease associations, 13,768 diagnostic and therapeutic biomarkers, and 312,049 nucleic acid subcellular locations. To characterize expression variation of exosomal molecules and identify causal factors of complex diseases, we have also collected 164 high-throughput datasets, including bulk and single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data. Based on these datasets, we performed various bioinformatics and statistical analyses to support our conclusions and advance our knowledge of exosome biology. Collectively, our dataset will serve as an essential resource for investigating the regulatory mechanisms of complex diseases and improving the development of diagnostic and therapeutic biomarkers.