University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
University of Turin, Italy.
Nat Rev Urol. 2014 Dec;11(12):688-701. doi: 10.1038/nrurol.2014.301. Epub 2014 Nov 18.
The knowledge gained from comprehensive profiling projects that aim to define the complex genomic alterations present within cancers will undoubtedly improve our ability to detect and treat those diseases, but the influence of these resources on our understanding of basic cancer biology is still to be demonstrated. Extracellular vesicles have gained considerable attention in past years, both as mediators of intercellular signalling and as potential sources for the discovery of novel cancer biomarkers. In general, research on extracellular vesicles investigates either the basic mechanism of vesicle formation and cargo incorporation, or the isolation of vesicles from available body fluids for biomarker discovery. A deeper understanding of the cargo molecules present in extracellular vesicles obtained from patients with urogenital cancers, through high-throughput proteomics or genomics approaches, will aid in the identification of novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers, and can potentially lead to the discovery of new therapeutic targets.
通过旨在定义癌症中存在的复杂基因组改变的全面分析项目获得的知识无疑将提高我们检测和治疗这些疾病的能力，但这些资源对我们对癌症生物学基本原理的理解的影响仍有待证明。外泌体在过去几年中受到了相当多的关注，既是细胞间信号传递的介质，也是发现新型癌症生物标志物的潜在来源。一般来说，对外泌体的研究要么是研究囊泡形成和货物掺入的基本机制，要么是从可用体液中分离囊泡以进行生物标志物发现。通过高通量蛋白质组学或基因组学方法，深入了解从泌尿生殖系统癌症患者中获得的外泌体中的货物分子，将有助于鉴定新型诊断和预后生物标志物，并有可能发现新的治疗靶点。
