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Review
. 2019 Sep 6:9:869.
doi: 10.3389/fonc.2019.00869. eCollection 2019.

Exosomes in Cancer Radioresistance

Jie Ni  1   2 , Joseph Bucci  1   2 , David Malouf  1   3 , Matthew Knox  1   2 , Peter Graham  1   2 , Yong Li  1   2   4
Affiliations
Review

Exosomes in Cancer Radioresistance

Jie Ni et al. Front Oncol. .

Abstract

Radiation is a mainstay of cancer therapy. Radioresistance is a significant challenge in the treatment of locally advanced, recurrent and metastatic cancers. The mechanisms of radioresistance are complicated and still not completely understood. Exosomes are 40-150 nm vesicles released by cancer cells that contain pathogenic components, such as proteins, mRNAs, DNA fragments, non-coding RNAs, and lipids. Exosomes play a critical role in cancer progression, including cell-cell communication, tumor-stromal interactions, activation of signaling pathways, and immunomodulation. Emerging data indicate that radiation-derived exosomes increase tumor burden, decrease survival, cause radiation-induced bystander effects and promote radioresistance. In addition, radiation can change the contents of exosomes, which allows exosomes to be used as a prognostic and predictive biomarker to monitor radiation response. Therefore, understanding the roles and mechanisms of exosomes in radiation response may shed light on how exosomes play a role in radioresistance and open a new way in radiotherapy and translational medicine. In this review, we discuss recent advances in radiation-induced exosome changes in components, focus on the roles of exosome in radiation-induced bystander effect in cancer and emphasize the importance of exosomes in cancer progression and radioresistance for developing novel therapy.

Keywords: bystander; cancer; exosomes; radioresistance; radiotherapy.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The bystander effect of exosomes in cancer radiotherapy. The mechanistic diagram displaying the effect of radiation-induced exosomal proteins and microRNAs in mediating cellular and molecular changes in RIBE. Created with BioRender.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Putative mechanisms of IR-induced exosomes in promoting cancer radioresistance. AHIF, a natural antisense transcript; circRNA, circular RNA; IR, irradiation; lncRNA, long non-coding RNA; miRNA, microRNA; mRNA, messenger RNA. Created with BioRender.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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