Clinical Research Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, 98109, USA.
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
Cancer Lett. 2020 Jul 10;482:33-43. doi: 10.1016/j.canlet.2020.04.009. Epub 2020 Apr 11.
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have garnered much attention as key mediators of intercellular communication within the tumor microenvironment (TME) as well as at distinct metastatic sites. Nucleic acid molecules are the important components of the EV cargo. Characterizing EVs and strategies for modulating the nucleic acid content to promote anti-tumoral functions has led to the emerging role of EVs as potential novel targets for cancer therapy. Recent approaches of engineering the EVs to reach targeted sites have bought this to the forefront for nucleic acid delivery. In this article, we discuss EV biology with recent methods to analyze their nucleic acid contents. We emphasize the role of EV-mediated nucleic acid transfer in the TME assisting in tumor progression and metastasis and further review the strategies for modulating the nucleic acid content in EV for suppressing tumor growth and immune activation. The article further discusses the recent developments in generating EV mimics as nucleic acid delivery systems.
细胞外囊泡 (EVs) 作为肿瘤微环境 (TME) 以及不同转移部位细胞间通讯的关键介质备受关注。核酸分子是 EV 货物的重要组成部分。对 EV 进行特征分析以及调节核酸含量以促进抗肿瘤功能的策略，使 EV 作为癌症治疗的潜在新靶点的作用凸显出来。最近通过工程改造 EV 以到达靶向部位的方法，使这一方法在核酸递送上处于前沿地位。在本文中，我们讨论了 EV 的生物学特性以及最近分析其核酸含量的方法。我们强调了 EV 介导的核酸转移在 TME 中辅助肿瘤进展和转移的作用，并进一步综述了调节 EV 中核酸含量以抑制肿瘤生长和免疫激活的策略。文章进一步讨论了作为核酸递送系统的 EV 模拟物的最新发展。
