Extracellular Vesicle lncRNAs as Key Biomolecules for Cell-to-Cell Communication and Circulating Cancer Biomarkers

Abstract

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are secreted by almost every cell type and are considered carriers of active biomolecules, such as nucleic acids, proteins, and lipids. Their content can be uptaken and released into the cytoplasm of recipient cells, thereby inducing gene reprogramming and phenotypic changes in the acceptor cells. Whether the effects of EVs on the physiology of recipient cells are mediated by individual biomolecules or the collective outcome of the total transferred EV content is still under debate. The EV RNA content consists of several types of RNA, such as messenger RNA (mRNA), microRNA (miRNA), and long non-coding RNA (lncRNA), the latter defined as transcripts longer than 200 nucleotides that do not code for proteins but have important established biological functions. This review aims to update our insights on the functional roles of EV and their cargo non-coding RNA during cancer progression, to highlight the utility of EV RNA as novel diagnostic or prognostic biomarkers in cancer, and to tackle the technological advances and limitations for EV RNA identification, integrity assessment, and preservation of its functionality.