bims-exocan 2025-08-24 papers

Issue of 2025–08–24
three papers selected by
Muhammad Rizwan, COMSATS University

Cancer Genet. 2025 Aug 12. pii: S2210-7762(25)00097-3. [Epub ahead of print]298-299 1-9

The impact of extracellular vesicles on breast cancer metastasis and therapeutics: genetic considerations.

Breast cancer is a significant health problem across the world, and a better understanding of the cellular and molecular properties of the microenvironment in which the breast cancer cells reside is paramount. Breast cancer cells exhibit an intricate bilateral interaction with the tumour microenvironment, which can contribute to tumour progression. This tumour microenvironment comprises a host of proteins, proteoglycans, glycoproteins, signalling molecules, stromal and immune cells, in addition to extracellular vesicles. Extracellular vesicles encompass a range of vesicles that facilitate cell-to-cell communication and signal relay. Examples of these extracellular vesicles include microvesicles, exosomes and apoptotic bodies. Other categorisations divide extracellular vesicles into exosomes and ectosomes based on their biogenesis. The content of extracellular vesicles can be DNA, RNA, miRNA, proteins, glycans and lipids. This content can affect the tumour microenvironment and tumour metastasis and progression. As such, this review article aims to understand the content of extracellular vesicles and those that promote invasion and metastasis in the context of the tumour microenvironment. The implications of these extracellular vesicles for breast cancer therapeutics will be addressed. Finally, the genes indicated in these processes will be discussed.

Keywords: Breast cancer; Exosomes; Extracellular vesicles; Metastasis; Therapeutics

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cancergen.2025.08.003

J Transl Med. 2025 Aug 18. 23(1): 925

The recent progress of tumor cell-derived exosomes in the pathogenesis, diagnosis and therapeutic strategies of tumors.

Mengyue Li, Yifan Wang, Hu Zhang, Xueqing Wang, Lin He, Jingying Dai.

Exosomes are extracellular vesicles of nanoscale, which represent the characteristics of the cells of origin. Tumor cell-derived exosomes (TEXs) obtain the characteristics of the tumor cells, which meanwhile transfer the various substances from the tumor cells to regulate the other cells and microenvironments. TEXs play an important role in the pathogenesis of tumors, which can promote the progression, metastasis and recurrence of tumors. Furthermore, TEXs also facilitate chemotherapy resistance and radiotherapy resistance of tumors. TEXs can be applied as biomarkers for the diagnosis of tumors as well as the differentiation of the subtypes and stages of tumors. TEXs also can be used in the evaluation of the prognosis and chemotherapy/radiotherapy resistance of tumors. For tumor therapy, TEXs can be utilized as potential targets, delivery carriers and tumor vaccines to hinder tumor progression. This review highlights the recent advances in the research and application of TEXs, which provides new ideas for the understanding and control of tumor diseases.

Keywords: Diagnosis; Pathogenesis; TEXs; Therapeutic strategies

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12967-025-06883-8

ACS Omega. 2025 Aug 12. 10(31): 34659-34665

The Use of dSTORM-Based Single Exosome Analysis To Study Tetraspanin Abundance in Extracellular Vesicles.

Komal Abhange, Siobhan King, Nicole Peterson, Vaibhav Sahai, Kyle C Cuneo, David M Lubman.

Serum-derived exosomes are membrane-enclosed nanovesicles secreted by cells, typically between 30 and 120 nm in diameter. Exosomes can be identified by the presence of tetraspanin protein markers including CD9, CD81, and CD63 among others. The relative amounts of these exosomal markers and their location in the exosomes are also related to their source of origin. The ability to investigate these different markers and their locations in individual and multiple exosomes was obtained using an optical imaging technique known as dSTORM (direct stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy) which can overcome the diffraction limit for detection of these nanovesicles. The use of the dSTORM imaging method has allowed us to evaluate the relative abundance of tetraspanin markers CD9, CD81, and CD63 in exosomes and the size of exosomes related to these markers. We also compared the presence of these markers in normal versus pancreatic cancer serum samples and against exosomes secreted from cell lines. We found that CD9 is generally the most abundant marker in exosomes and is found near the surface of the exosomes, although CD81 and CD63 abundance is also significant. This result is consistent with our prior DIA mass spectrometry data and may be important in future work involving analysis of exosomes as markers of disease.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.5c03540