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
. 2021 Mar 22:11:639159.
doi: 10.3389/fonc.2021.639159. eCollection 2021.

Exosomes and Their Role in Cancer Progression

Yang Liu  1 , Ke Shi  1 , Yong Chen  2 , Xianrui Wu  1 , Zheng Chen  1 , Ke Cao  3 , Yongguang Tao  4 , Xiang Chen  5 , Junlin Liao  6 , Jianda Zhou  1
Affiliations
Review

Exosomes and Their Role in Cancer Progression

Yang Liu et al. Front Oncol. .

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.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
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.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Zaborowski MP, Balaj L, Breakefield XO, Lai CP. Extracellular Vesicles: Composition, Biological Relevance, and Methods of Study. Bioscience (2015) 65(8):783–97. 10.1093/biosci/biv084 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Yáñez-Mó M, Siljander PR, Andreu Z, Zavec AB, Borràs FE, Buzas EI, et al. Biological properties of extracellular vesicles and their physiological functions. J Extracell Vesicles (2015) 4:27066. 10.3402/jev.v4.27066 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. van Niel G, D’Angelo G, Raposo G. Shedding light on the cell biology of extracellular vesicles. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol (2018) 19(4):213–28. 10.1038/nrm.2017.125 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Trams EG, Lauter CJ, Salem N, Heine U. Exfoliation of membrane ecto-enzymes in the form of micro-vesicles. Biochim Biophys Acta (1981) 645(1):63–70. 10.1016/0005-2736(81)90512-5 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Johnstone RM, Adam M, Hammond JR, Orr L, Turbide C. Vesicle formation during reticulocyte maturation. Association of plasma membrane activities with released vesicles (exosomes). J Biol Chem (1987) 262(19):9412–20. 10.1016/S0021-9258(18)48095-7 - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources