The multifaceted role of extracellular vesicles in prostate cancer-a review

Prostate cancer is the second most prominent form of cancer in men and confers the highest mortality after lung cancer. The term "extracellular vesicles" refers to minute endosomal-derived membrane microvesicles and it was demonstrated that extracellular vesicles affect the environment in which tumors originate. Extracellular vesicles' involvement is also established in the development of drug resistance, angiogenesis, stemness, and radioresistance in various cancers including prostate cancer. Extracellular vesicles influence the general environment, processes, and growth of prostate cancer and can be a potential area that offers a significant lead in prostate cancer therapy. In this review, we have elaborated on the multifaceted role of extracellular vesicles in various processes involved in the development of prostate cancer, and their multitude of applications in the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer through the encapsulation of various bioactives.

Emerging noncoding RNAs contained in extracellular vesicles: rising stars as biomarkers in lung cancer liquid biopsy

Lung cancer has a high morbidity and mortality rate, and affected patients have a poor prognosis and low survival. The therapeutic approaches for lung cancer treatment, including surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, are not completely effective, due to late diagnosis. Although the identification of genetic drivers has contributed to the improvement of lung cancer clinical management, the discovery of new diagnostic and prognostic tools remains a critical issue. Liquid biopsy (LB) represents a minimally invasive approach and practical alternative source to investigate tumor-derived alterations and to facilitate the selection of targeted therapies. LB allows for the testing of different analytes such as circulating tumor cells, extracellular vesicles (EVs), tumor-educated platelets, and cell-free nucleic acids including DNAs, RNAs, and noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs). Several regulatory factors control the key cellular oncogenic pathways involved in cancers. ncRNAs have a wide range of regulatory effects in lung cancers. This review focuses on emerging regulatory ncRNAs, freely circulating in body fluids or shuttled by EVs, such as circular-RNAs, small nucleolar-RNAs, small nuclear-RNAs, and piwi-RNAs, as new biomarkers for early detection, prognosis, and monitoring of therapeutic strategy of lung cancer treatment.

Semen as a rich source of diagnostic biomarkers for prostate cancer: latest evidence and implications

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most common cancers in men and the cause of numerous cancer deaths in the world. Nowadays, based on diagnostic criteria, prostate-specific antigen (PSA) evaluation and rectal examination are used to diagnose prostate-related malignancies. However, due to the different types of PCa, there are several doubts about the diagnostic value of PSA. On the other hand, semen is considered an appropriate source and contains various biomarkers in non-invasive diagnosing several autoimmune disorders and malignancies. Evidence suggests that analysis of semen biomarkers could be helpful in PCa diagnosis. Therefore, due to the invasiveness of most diagnostic methods in PCa, the use of semen as a biologic sample containing various biomarkers can lead to the emergence of novel and non-invasive diagnostic approaches. This review summarized recent studies on the use of various seminal biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis and prediction of PCa.

Exosomes Engineering and Their Roles as Therapy Delivery Tools, Therapeutic Targets, and Biomarkers

Exosomes are becoming increasingly important therapeutic biomaterials for use in a variety of therapeutic applications due to their unique characteristics, especially due to the ineffectiveness and cytotoxicity of some existing therapies and synthetic therapeutic nanocarriers. They are highly promising as carriers of drugs, genes, and other therapeutic agents that can be incorporated into their interior or onto their surface through various modification techniques to improve their targeting abilities. In addition, they are biocompatible, safe, and stable. The review focuses on different types of exosomes and methods of their preparation, including the incorporation of different kinds of cargo, especially for drug delivery purposes. In particular, their importance and effectiveness as delivery vehicles of various therapeutic agents for a variety of therapeutic applications, including different diseases and disorders such as cancer treatment, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, are emphasized. Administration routes of exosomes into the body are also included. A novelty in the article is the emphasis on global companies that are already successfully developing and testing such therapeutic biomaterials, with a focus on the most influential ones. Moreover, a comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of the various methods of exosome production is summarized for the first time.

Seminal exosomes - An important biological marker for various disorders and syndrome in human reproduction

BACKGROUND

Exosomes are nano-sized membrane vesicles, secreted by different types of cells into the body's biological fluids. They are found in abundance in semen as compared to other fluids. Exosomes contain a cargo of lipid molecules, proteins, phospholipids, cholesterol, mRNAs, and miRNAs. Each molecule of seminal exosomes (SE) has a potential role in male reproduction for childbirth. Many potential candidates are available within the seminal exosomes that can be used as diagnostic markers for various diseases or syndromes associated with male reproduction. Also these seminal exospmes play a major role in female reproductive tract for effective fertilization.

AIM

The aim of this review is to focus on the advancement of human seminal exosomal research and its various properties.

METHODS

We used many databases like Scopus, Google scholar, NCBI-NLM and other sources to filter the articles of interest published in exosomes. We used phrases like "Exosomes in human semen", "Composition of exosomes in human semen" and other relevant words to filter the best articles.

RESULTS

Seminal exosomes play a major role in sperm functions like cell-to-cell communication, motility of the sperm cells, maintaining survival capacity for the sperm in the female reproductive tract and spermatogenesis. Also, seminal exosomes are used as a carrier for many regulatory elements using small RNA molecules. miRNAs of the seminal exosomes can be used as a diagnostic marker for prostate cancer instead of prostate specific antigen (PSA). Epididymosomes can be used as a biomarker for reproductive diseases and male infertility.

CONCLUSION

Seminal exosomes could be used as biological markers for various reproductive disorders, male infertility diagnosis, and it can be used in anti-retroviral research for the identification of novel therapeutics for HIV-1 infection and transmission.

Current Search through Liquid Biopsy of Effective Biomarkers for Early Cancer Diagnosis into the Rich Cargoes of Extracellular Vesicles

There exist many different human cancers, but regardless of the cancer type, an early diagnosis is a necessary condition for further optimal outcomes from the disease. Therefore, efficient specific and sensitive cancer biomarkers are urgently needed. This is especially true for the cancers depicting a silent progression, and those only diagnosed in an already metastatic state with a poor survival prognostic. After a rapid overview of the previous methods for cancer diagnosis, the outstanding characteristics of extracellular vesicles (EVs) will be presented, as new interesting candidates for early cancer diagnosis in human biofluid non-invasive liquid biopsy. The present review aims to give the state-of-the-art of the numerous searches of efficient EV-mediated cancer diagnosis. The corresponding literature quest was performed by means of an original approach, using a powerful Expernova Questel big data platform, which was specifically adapted for a literature search on EVs. The chosen collected scientific papers are presented in two parts, the first one drawing up a picture of the current general status of EV-mediated cancer diagnosis and the second one showing recent applications of such EV-mediated diagnosis for six important human-specific cancers, i.e., lung, breast, prostate, colorectal, ovary and pancreatic cancers. However, the promising perspective of finally succeeding in the worldwide quest for the much-needed early cancer diagnosis has to be moderated by the many remaining challenges left to solve before achieving the efficient clinical translation of the constantly increasing scientific knowledge.

Sources, isolation strategies and therapeutic outcome of exosomes at a glance

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have attracted great attention due to their known role in facilitating intercellular communication in a diverse range of cellular processes. In the 30 years since the discovery of exosomes, a class of EV, they have gone from being considered a cellular waste disposal mechanism to an important aspect of cell-to-cell communication. The exponential interest in exosomes in recent years is due to their key role in health and disease and their potential clinical application in therapy and diagnosis. This review aims to provide an updated picture of the sources, isolation methods, therapeutic outcomes and current application of EVs, in particular exosomes.

A Two-Dimensional Affinity Capture and Separation Mini-Platform for the Isolation, Enrichment, and Quantification of Biomarkers and Its Potential Use for Liquid Biopsy

Biomarker detection for disease diagnosis, prognosis, and therapeutic response is becoming increasingly reliable and accessible. Particularly, the identification of circulating cell-free chemical and biochemical substances, cellular and subcellular entities, and extracellular vesicles has demonstrated promising applications in understanding the physiologic and pathologic conditions of an individual. Traditionally, tissue biopsy has been the gold standard for the diagnosis of many diseases, especially cancer. More recently, liquid biopsy for biomarker detection has emerged as a non-invasive or minimally invasive and less costly method for diagnosis of both cancerous and non-cancerous diseases, while also offering information on the progression or improvement of disease. Unfortunately, the standardization of analytical methods to isolate and quantify circulating cells and extracellular vesicles, as well as their extracted biochemical constituents, is still cumbersome, time-consuming, and expensive. To address these limitations, we have developed a prototype of a portable, miniaturized instrument that uses immunoaffinity capillary electrophoresis (IACE) to isolate, concentrate, and analyze cell-free biomarkers and/or tissue or cell extracts present in biological fluids. Isolation and concentration of analytes is accomplished through binding to one or more biorecognition affinity ligands immobilized to a solid support, while separation and analysis are achieved by high-resolution capillary electrophoresis (CE) coupled to one or more detectors. When compared to other existing methods, the process of this affinity capture, enrichment, release, and separation of one or a panel of biomarkers can be carried out on-line with the advantages of being rapid, automated, and cost-effective. Additionally, it has the potential to demonstrate high analytical sensitivity, specificity, and selectivity. As the potential of liquid biopsy grows, so too does the demand for technical advances. In this review, we therefore discuss applications and limitations of liquid biopsy and hope to introduce the idea that our affinity capture-separation device could be used as a form of point-of-care (POC) diagnostic technology to isolate, concentrate, and analyze circulating cells, extracellular vesicles, and viruses.

Breast Cancer Derived Extracellular Vesicles in Bone Metastasis Induction and Their Clinical Implications as Biomarkers

Cancer incidence and mortality are rapidly growing worldwide. The main risk factors for cancer can be associated with aging as well as the growth of the population and socioeconomic condition. Breast cancer, a crucial public health problem, is the second cause of death among women. About 70% of patients with advanced breast cancer have bone metastases. In bone metastasis, cancer cells and osteoclasts form a vicious cycle: cancer cells promote osteoclast differentiation and activation that, in turn, induce cancer cell seeding and proliferation in the bone. Growing evidence shows that extracellular vesicles (EVs) play a key role in carcinogenesis, proliferation, pre-metastatic niche formation, angiogenesis, metastasis, and chemoresistance in several tumors, such as breast, lung, prostate, and liver cancer. Here, we discuss the role of EVs released by breast cancer cells, focusing on bone metastasis induction and their clinical implications as biomarkers.

Seminal exosomes and HIV-1 transmission

Exosomes are endosomal‐derived membrane‐confined nanovesicles secreted by many (if not all) cell types and isolated from every human bodily fluid examined up to now including plasma, semen, vaginal secretions and breast milk. Exosomes are thought to represent a new player in cell‐to‐cell communication pathways and immune regulation, and be involved in many physiological and pathological processes. Susceptibility to HIV‐1 infection can be impacted by exosomes, while HIV‐1 pathogenesis can alter exosomal function and composition. Exosomes isolated from semen and vaginal fluid of healthy individuals can inhibit HIV‐1 infection and/or potently block viral transfer in vitro. However, the role of exosomes in HIV‐1 transmission and progression is not fully understood yet and some studies show conflicting results, mainly for exosomes isolated from plasma and breast milk. Determining the composition of exosomes from infected donors and studying their interaction with HIV‐1 in vitro compared to exosomes isolated from uninfected donors will provide insights into the role exosomes play in HIV‐1 transmission during sexual intercourse and breastfeeding.