Exosomes: A Promising Avenue for the Diagnosis of Breast Cancer

Abstract

Currently, despite the advances in individualized treatment, breast cancer still remains the deadliest form of cancer in women. Diagnostic, prognostic, and therapy-predictive methods are mainly based on the evaluation of tumor tissue samples and are aimed to improve the overall therapeutic level. Therefore, the exploration of a series of circulating biomarkers, which serve as the information source of tumors and could be obtained by peripheral blood samples, represents a high field of interest. Apart from classical biomarkers, exosomes, which are nanovesicles, are emerging as an accessible and efficient source of cell information. The purpose of this review is to summarize the peculiarities of the presently available breast cancer exosomal biomarkers; the review also provides the prediction of a multitude of potential target genes of exosomal microRNAs using 4 databases.

Keywords: breast cancer; diagnostics; exosome; miRNA; protein.

Figure 1.

Schematic Representation of exosomes. The structure and contents of exosomes are demonstrated in this plot. The lipid bilayer membrane of exosomes, sharing similar topology to the original cells, carries typical transmembrane proteins and receptors. In addition, the contents of exosomes can be transferred from the original cell to their target cell, including RNA species (mRNAs, miRNAs, and other types of short RNAs) and a vast array of different proteins.

Figure 2.

Exosome application in BrCa diagnosis. This plot demonstrates the process of utilizing exosomes in BrCa diagnosis.

Figure 3.

Summary of the target gene of miRs. The potential function of the miRs (miR-21, miR-101, miR-105, miR-372, miR-373, miR-451, miR-1246, and miR-222-3p) encapsulated in the BrCa cell-derived exosomes.

Figure 3.

Summary of the target gene of miRs. The potential function of the miRs (miR-21, miR-101, miR-105, miR-372, miR-373, miR-451, miR-1246, and miR-222-3p) encapsulated in the BrCa cell-derived exosomes.