Abstract
Exosomes exhibit a wide range of biological properties and functions in the living organisms. They are nanometric vehicles and used for delivering drugs, as they are biocompatible and minimally immunogenic. Exosomal secretions derived from cancer cells contribute to metastasis, immortality, angiogenesis, tissue invasion, stemness and chemo/radio-resistance. Exosome-derived microRNAs (miRNAs) and long non-coding RNAs (lnc RNAs) are involved in the pathophysiology of cancers and neurodegenerative diseases. For instance, exosomes derived from mesenchymal stromal cells, astrocytes, macrophages, and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells are involved in the cancer progression and stemness as they induce chemotherapeutic drug resistance in several cancer cells. This review covered the recent research advances in understanding the role of exosomes in cancer progression, metastasis, angiogenesis, stemness and drug resistance by illustrating the modulatory effects of exosomal cargo (ex. miRNA, lncRNAs, etc.) on cell signaling pathways involved in cancer progression and cancer stem cell growth and development. Recent reports have implicated exosomes even in the treatment of several cancers. For instance, exosomes-loaded with novel anti-cancer drugs such as phytochemicals, tumor-targeting proteins, anticancer peptides, nucleic acids are known to interfere with drug resistance pathways in several cancer cell lines. In addition, this review depicted the need to develop exosome-based novel diagnostic biomarkers for early detection of cancers and neurodegenerative disease. Furthermore, the role of exosomes in stroke and oxidative stress-mediated neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and Parkinson’s disease (PD) is also discussed in this article.
Highlights
Extracellular VesiclesThe research work on extracellular vesicles (EVs) is experiencing an unprecedented spurt in a decade in the field of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases [1,2]
EVs are a heterogeneous population of secreted submicron-size microparticles and the nanometer-size exosomes involved in cell-to-cell communication
The results of this study demonstrated that cancer cell-derived exosomes activate MAPK signaling in tumor-associated monocytes via the transport of active RTKs to block the activities of caspases [139]
Summary
The research work on extracellular vesicles (EVs) is experiencing an unprecedented spurt in a decade in the field of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases [1,2]. Exosomes are known to play a significant role in aiding novel biosensing systems to ascertain the targeted delivery of therapeutic entities across the tumor microenvironment, and affected brain regions during neurodegeneration. The present review is a promising platform for developing diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for early detection of cancer and neurodegeneration based on the cargo inside the EVs. this review provides an overview of repurposing EVs as carriers of therapeutics to target various chemoresistant cancers including brain tumors, and neurodegenerative diseases. The global profiling of EV-RNAs against cancer mutations, stemness, disease prognosis, tumor recurrence and overall survival is a significant strategy to predict cancer specific signatures and offer a platform to develop novel RNA-based EVs as disease biomarkers
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