Department of Biological Engineering, College of Engineering, Konkuk University, Seoul, 05029, Republic of Korea.
Biotechnol J. 2019 Jan;14(1):e1800430. doi: 10.1002/biot.201800430. Epub 2018 Nov 20.
Exosomes, membrane-bound phospholipid vesicles having diameters of 50-200 nm, are secreted by all cell types and circulate in human body fluids. These vesicles are known to carry cellular constituents that are specific to the originating cells (e.g., cytoplasmic/membrane proteins, RNA, and DNA). Thus, exosomes, which are both structurally stable and abundant, are robust indicators of cancers and, as a result, they have been utilized to monitor this disease in a manner that is less invasive than gold standard tissue biopsies. In this review, the history of exosomes and the specific biomarkers present in exosomes that enable accurate monitoring of various diseases are described. In addition, methods for analysis of exosomes and identification of biomarkers are presented with special emphasis being given to isolation and signaling strategies. Lastly, integrated, microfluidic systems developed for exosome-based cancer diagnosis are described and future directions that research in this area will likely take are presented.
外泌体是一种直径为 50-200nm 的膜结合磷脂囊泡，由所有细胞类型分泌，并在人体体液中循环。这些囊泡携带特定于起源细胞的细胞成分（例如细胞质/膜蛋白、RNA 和 DNA）。因此，外泌体结构稳定且丰富，是癌症的可靠标志物，因此已被用于以比金标准组织活检侵入性更小的方式监测这种疾病。在这篇综述中，描述了外泌体的历史以及外泌体中存在的特定生物标志物，这些标志物可实现对各种疾病的准确监测。此外，还介绍了分析外泌体和鉴定生物标志物的方法，特别强调了分离和信号转导策略。最后，描述了用于基于外泌体的癌症诊断的集成微流控系统，并提出了该领域研究可能的未来方向。
