Small extracellular vesicles as a multicomponent biomarker platform in urinary tract carcinomas

Abstract

Extracellular vesicles are a large group of nano-sized vesicles released by all cells. The variety of possible cargo (mRNAs, miRNAs, lncRNAs, proteins, and lipids) and the presence of surface proteins, signaling molecules, and receptor ligands make them a rich source of biomarkers for malignancy diagnosis. One of the groups gathering the most interest in cancer diagnostic applications is small extracellular vesicles (sEVs), with ≤200 nm diameter, mainly composed of exosomes. Many studies were conducted recently, evaluating the diagnostic potential of sEVs in urinary tract carcinomas (UTCs), discovering and clinically evaluating various classes of biomarkers. The amount of research concerning different types of UTCs understandably reflects their incidence. sEV cargos getting the most interest are non-coding RNAs (miRNA and lncRNA). However, implementation of other approaches such as metabolomic and proteomic analysis is also evaluated. The results of many studies indicate that sEVs have an essential role in the cancer process and possess many possible diagnostic and prognostic applications for UTC. The relative ease of obtaining biofluids rich in sEVs (urine and blood) confirms that sEVs are essential for UTC detection in the liquid biopsy approach. A noticeable rise in research quality is observed as more researchers are aware of the research standardization necessity, which is essential for considering the clinical application of their findings.

Hyperthermic shift and cell engineering increase small extracellular vesicle production in HEK293F cells

“…Being very sensitive images of their cellular origin (Ambrożej et al, 2022; Cano et al, 2023; Szeliski et al, 2022), it is important to carefully analyze sEV quality after tweaking any factor of the production process. These changes could also be seen as an opportunity, though, and improving the product attributes via the application of specific culture parameters might be a viable option for the future (Patel et al, 2018).…”

Filter-aided extracellular vesicle enrichment (FAEVEr) for proteomics

“…In this respect, EVs have shown clinical potential as a source of circulating biomarkers for different cancers (e.g. breast (18), urinary tract (22) and bone cancer (23)) and other diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (24,25), chronic liver disease (26) and multiple sclerosis (27).…”