Extracellular vesicles as carriers of microRNA, proteins and lipids in tumor microenvironment

Abstract

In recent years, the knowledge about the control of tumor microenvironment has increased and emerged as an important player in tumorigenesis. The role of normal stromal cells in the tumor initiation and progression has brought our vision in to the forefront of cell-to-cell communication. In this review, we focus on the mechanism of communication between stromal and tumor cells, which is based on the exchange of extracellular vesicles (EVs). We describe several, evergrowing, pieces of evidence that EVs transfer messages through their miRNA, lipid, protein and nucleic acid contents. A better understanding of this sophisticated method of communication between normal cancer cells may lead to developing novel approaches for personalized diagnostics and therapeutics.

Intracellular and extracellular microRNA: An update on localization and biological role

“…For instance, bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells secreted miRNA-containing exosomes, which were absorbed by tubular epithelial cells and inhibited expression of corresponding targets (Collino et al, 2010). Furthermore, miRNAs released with the exosomes from cancer cells were able to alter gene expression in surrounding tissues and contribute to the progression of tumors (Neviani and Fabbri, 2015;Penfornis et al, 2016). Finally, B-lymphoblastoid cells infected by Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) transferred viral miRNA through exosomes into co-cultured non-infected cells and suppressed the expression of known EBV target genes (Pegtel et al, 2010).…”

Exosomes in stroke pathogenesis and therapy

“…Exosomes transfer their cargo miRNAs to recipient cells (120,121) and MSC-derived exosomes contain more than 700 miRNAs that are bound to argonaute2 (AGO2), a component of the RNAinduced silencing complex (RISC) (122,123). The effect of engineered MSC-derived exosomes that carry elevated miRNAs on brain remodeling after stroke has been investigated in vitro and in vivo (118,119).…”

Inflammation, fibrosis, and modulation of the process by mesenchymal stem/stromal cells

“…However, in some circumstances the cells enhanced proliferation and differentiation of tissue endogenous stem cells [18]. In other circumstances, they enhanced regeneration of injured cells by transfer of vesicles containing proteins, microRNAs, mRNAs and even mitochondria [19-22]. …”