Exosomes: a potential diagnostic and treatment modality in the quest for counteracting cancer.

Abstract

Exosomes are nanosized bio vesiclesformed when multivesicular bodies and the plasma membrane merge and discharge into bodily fluids. They arewell recognized for facilitating intercellular communication by transporting numerous biomolecules, including DNA,RNAs, proteins, and lipids, and have been implicated in varied diseases including cancer. Exosomes may bealtered to transport a variety of therapeutic payloads, including as short interfering RNAs, antisenseoligonucleotides, chemotherapeutic drugs, and immunological modulators, and can be directed to a specific target.Exosomes also possess the potential to act as a diagnostic biomarker in cancer, in addition to their therapeuticpotential. In this review, the physiological roles played by exosomes were summarized along with their biogenesis process. Different isolation techniques of exosomes including centrifugation-based, size-based, and polymer precipitation-based techniques have also been described in detail with a special focus on cancer therapeutic applications. The review also shed light on techniques of incubation ofdrugs with exosomes and their characterization methods covering the most advanced techniques. Myriadapplications of exosomes in cancer as diagnostic biomarkers, drug delivery carriers, and chemoresistance-relatedissues have been discussed at length. Furthermore, a brief overview of exosome-based anti-cancer vaccines and afew prominent challenges concerning exosomal delivery have been concluded at the end.