Department of Medical Biotechnology, School of Medicine, Arak University of Medical Sciences, Arak, Iran.
Curr Mol Med. 2023;23(4):312-323. doi: 10.2174/1566524022666220321125134.
Esophageal cancer (EC) is one of the major causes of cancer-related death worldwide. EC is usually diagnosed at a late stage, and despite aggressive therapy, the five-year survival rate of patients remains poor. Exosomes play important roles in cancer biology. Indeed, exosomes are implicated in tumor proliferation, angiogenesis, and invasion. They contain bioactive molecules such as lipids, proteins, and non-coding RNAs. Exosome research has recently concentrated on microRNAs, which are tiny noncoding endogenous RNAs that can alter gene expression and are linked to nearly all physiological and pathological processes, including cancer. It is suggested that deregulation of miRNAs results in cancer progression and directly induces tumor initiation. In esophageal cancer, miRNA dysregulation plays an important role in cancer prognosis and patients' responsiveness to therapy, indicating that miRNAs are important in tumorigenesis. In this review, we summarize the impact of exosomal miRNAs on esophageal cancer pathogenesis and their potential applications for EC diagnosis and therapy.
食管癌（EC）是全球癌症相关死亡的主要原因之一。EC 通常在晚期诊断，尽管采用积极的治疗方法，患者的五年生存率仍然很差。外泌体在癌症生物学中发挥着重要作用。事实上，外泌体参与肿瘤增殖、血管生成和侵袭。它们包含生物活性分子，如脂质、蛋白质和非编码 RNA。外泌体研究最近集中在 microRNAs 上，microRNAs 是微小的非编码内源性 RNA，可以改变基因表达，并与几乎所有生理和病理过程有关，包括癌症。有研究表明，miRNA 的失调导致癌症的进展，并直接诱导肿瘤的发生。在食管癌中，miRNA 的失调在癌症的预后和患者对治疗的反应中起着重要作用，这表明 miRNA 在肿瘤发生中很重要。在这篇综述中，我们总结了外泌体 miRNA 对食管癌发病机制的影响及其在 EC 诊断和治疗中的潜在应用。
