Abstract
Simple SummaryThe distinct molecular and biological properties of exosomes, together with their abundance and stability, make them an ideal target in liquid biopsies for early diagnosis and disease monitoring. On the other hand, in recent years, nanomaterial-based optical biosensors have been extensively investigated as novel, rapid and sensitive tools for exosome detection and discrimination. The scope of this review is to summarize and coherently discussed the diverse applications, challenges and limitations of nanosensors based on surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) as the optosensing technique.Exosomes are emerging as one of the most intriguing cancer biomarkers in modern oncology for early cancer diagnosis, prognosis and treatment monitoring. Concurrently, several nanoplasmonic methods have been applied and developed to tackle the challenging task of enabling the rapid, sensitive, affordable analysis of exosomes. In this review, we specifically focus our attention on the application of plasmonic devices exploiting surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) as the optosensing technique for the structural interrogation and characterization of the heterogeneous nature of exosomes. We summarized the current state-of-art of this field while illustrating the main strategic approaches and discuss their advantages and limitations.
Highlights
In the impending decades, cancer is set to become a major cause of morbidity and mortality across all regions of the globe [1], with an estimated 13.2 million related deaths by 2030 [1,2]
The prevailing theory about the origin of cancer indicates that a primary tumor develops for a long time, from a subclinical or microscopic level, before it spreads at distance [4]
In bone-marrow [7], for example, hematopoietic progenitor cells that express VEGFR1 are located in tumor premetastatic sites and form cellular clusters induced by exosomes originated in primary tumor cells
Summary
Cancer is set to become a major cause of morbidity and mortality across all regions of the globe [1], with an estimated 13.2 million related deaths by 2030 [1,2]. There is an urgent need for new technologies capable of detecting the presence of tumor cells before the disease emerges as clinically visible In this regard, exosome-based liquid biopsy in peripheral blood and other body fluids is among the most promising techniques for pre-metastatic cancer diagnosis [6]. It has been recognized that before they spread to distant sites, the original or primary tumors “communicate” with cells and tissues of other organs, as well as their surrounding environment, to prepare what will be eventually a metastatic niche This horizontal intercellular communication takes place through exosomes. Tumor cells can gain capacities such as “invasiveness” or enhance their proliferative efficiency An example of this reverse communication process has been observed for normal adipocytes, which secrete exosomes carrying proteins involved in the oxidation of fatty acids that are eventually incorporated into melanoma cells. The unique distinct molecular and biological properties of exosomes, together with their abundance and stability, make them an ideal target in liquid biopsies for early diagnosis [6] and for disease monitoring and, an opportunity for cancer cure [32]
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