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Review
. 2022 May 4;14(9):2289.
doi: 10.3390/cancers14092289.

Extracellular Vesicles in the Progression and Therapeutic Resistance of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Yunhan Shan  1   2   3 , Peijun Zhou  1   2 , Qin Zhou  1 , Lifang Yang  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Extracellular Vesicles in the Progression and Therapeutic Resistance of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Yunhan Shan et al. Cancers (Basel). .

Abstract

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is an epithelial malignancy largely associated with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection, which is frequently reported in east and southeast Asia. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) originate from the endosome or plasma membrane, which plays a critical role in tumor pathogenesis for their character of cell-cell communication and its cargos, including proteins, RNA, and other molecules that can target recipient cells and affect their progression. To date, numerous studies have indicated that EVs have crucial significance in the progression, metastasis, and therapeutic resistance of NPC. In this review, we not only summarize the interaction of NPC cells and the tumor microenvironment (TME) through EVs, but also explain the role of EVs in radiation and drug resistance of NPC, which poses a severe threat to cancer therapy. Therefore, EVs may show great potential as biomarkers in the early diagnosis of interfered targets of NPC therapy.

Keywords: extracellular vesicles; nasopharyngeal carcinoma; therapeutic resistance; tumor microenvironment.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Biogenesis and secretion of extracellular vesicles in EBV-associated NP.
Figure 2
Figure 2
A schematic representation of the regulation of the EVs content from different sources on NPC cells and TME cells.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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