Exosomes and Their Role in Cancer Progression

Abstract

Exosomes from extracellular vesicles can activate or inhibit various signaling pathways by transporting proteins, lipids, nucleic acids and other substances to recipient cells. In addition, exosomes are considered to be involved in the development and progression of tumors from different tissue sources in numerous ways, including remodeling of the tumor microenvironment, promoting angiogenesis, metastasis, and invasion, and regulating the immune escape of tumor cells. However, the precise molecular mechanisms by which exosomes participate in these different processes remains unclear. In this review, we describe the research progress of tumor cell-derived exosomes in cancer progression. We also discuss the prospects of the application of exosomes combined with nanoengineered chemotherapeutic drugs in the treatment of cancer.

Keywords: EMT - epithelial to mesenchymal transformation; angiogenesis; cancer treatment; exosomes; immune regulation; tumor microenvironment.

Figure 1

The roles of exosomes in cancer. Tumor cell-derived exosomes play a vital role in the remodeling of the tumor microenvironment, and can promote EMT and increase the motility and invasiveness of tumor cells, leading to tumor migration and metastasis. When tumor cells reach new metastasis sites in vivo, tumor cell-derived exosomes can promote the formation of new blood vessels. To enable tumor metastasis, exosomes also can promote tumor metastasis by involving in immune regulation. Finally, exosomes can be used as a carrier for drug delivery in cancer treatment.