Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2016 Aug:29:47-53.
doi: 10.1016/j.coph.2016.06.003. Epub 2016 Jun 28.

Vesicle-MaNiA: extracellular vesicles in liquid biopsy and cancer

Affiliations
Review

Vesicle-MaNiA: extracellular vesicles in liquid biopsy and cancer

Veronica Torrano et al. Curr Opin Pharmacol. 2016 Aug.

Abstract

Normal and tumor cells shed vesicles to the environment. Within the large family of extracellular vesicles, exosomes and microvesicles have attracted much attention in the recent years. Their interest ranges from mediators of cancer progression, inflammation, immune regulation and metastatic niche regulation, to non-invasive biomarkers of disease. In this respect, the procedures to purify and analyze extracellular vesicles have quickly evolved and represent a source of variability for data integration in the field. In this review, we provide an updated view of the potential of exosomes and microvesicles as biomarkers and the available technologies for their isolation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Schematic representation of extracellular vesicles (EVs) as biomarkers in liquid biopsy
The distinct composition of EVs and its cargo in normal and cancer cells is indicated by differential coloring. Shedding of EVs to blood and urine is depicted (note that urine accessibility will be organ-dependent). The potential of cancer-EVs to educate the pre-metastatic niche is represented as the accumulation of vesicles in target organs.

References

    1. Boelens MC, et al. Exosome transfer from stromal to breast cancer cells regulates therapy resistance pathways. Cell. 2014;159(3):499–513. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cai Z, et al. Activated T cell exosomes promote tumor invasion via Fas signaling pathway. J Immunol. 2012;188(12):5954–61. - PubMed
    1. Costa-Silva B, et al. Pancreatic cancer exosomes initiate pre-metastatic niche formation in the liver. Nat Cell Biol. 2015;17(6):816–26. Elegant study showing the activity of exosomes in systemic communication and their potential use as clinical markers in pancreatic cancer. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hood JL, San RS, Wickline SA. Exosomes released by melanoma cells prepare sentinel lymph nodes for tumor metastasis. Cancer Res. 2011;71(11):3792–801. - PubMed
    1. Luga V, et al. Exosomes mediate stromal mobilization of autocrine Wnt-PCP signaling in breast cancer cell migration. Cell. 2012;151(7):1542–56. - PubMed

Publication types

Substances