bims-exocan 2025-06-08 papers

Issue of 2025–06–08
three papers selected by
Muhammad Rizwan, COMSATS University

Curr Cancer Drug Targets. 2025 Jun 02.

Extracellular Vesicles-Associated tRFs as Emerging Biomarkers in Breast Cancer.

Md Sadique Hussain, Liming Zhang, Sumel Ashique.

Breast cancer (BC) remains a leading cause of cancer-related mortality among women worldwide, underscoring the urgent need for sensitive, non-invasive biomarkers to improve diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment monitoring. Traditional biomarkers like ER, PR, and HER2 offer limited efficacy, particularly for heterogeneous subtypes such as triple-nega-tive breast cancer (TNBC). Extracellular vesicles (EVs), including exosomes and microvesi-cles, have emerged as promising biomarker carriers due to their stability and ability to encap-sulate diverse bioactive molecules reflective of the parental cell's state. Among EV cargoes, tRNA-derived fragments (tRFs), which are small non-coding RNAs produced by precise cleavage of tRNAs, have gained increasing attention. Once considered mere degradation prod-ucts, tRFs are now recognized for their roles in gene regulation, translation control, apoptosis modulation, and immune response. Recent studies have revealed the selective enrichment of tRFs within EVs, highlighting their role in intercellular communication in breast cancer. Dif-ferential expression of EV-associated tRFs correlates with BC subtype, stage, and patient prog-nosis, highlighting their potential as minimally invasive biomarkers. Specifically, altered lev-els of certain 5'- and 3'-tRFs in patient sera and tumor tissues have been associated with poor survival, metastasis, and therapeutic resistance. Despite these promising findings, gaps remain regarding the mechanisms of tRF sorting into EVs and their functional impact on the tumor microenvironment. This review systematically examines the current understanding of EV-as-sociated tRFs in breast cancer, emphasizing their clinical relevance, detection strategies, and translational potential. By addressing existing challenges, we aim to provide insights into the utility of EV-tRFs as novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets in BC.

Keywords: Biomarkers; MicroRNAs; breast neoplasms; cancer diagnosis; extracellular vesicles; gene expression; tumor micro-environment.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2174/0115680096388071250527074008

Cell Commun Signal. 2025 Jun 04. 23(1): 265

Functionalized exosomes for targeted therapy in cancer and regenerative medicine: genetic, chemical, and physical modifications.

Salar Ghaffari Gabaran, Navid Ghasemzadeh, Maryam Rahnama, Erkan Karatas, Ali Akbari, Jafar Rezaie.

BACKGROUND: Extracellular vesicles (EVs), such as exosomes, have been extensively discovered for their function in various diseases and potential therapeutic properties. In this review, we aimed to describe the therapeutic roles of functionalized exosomes in cancer and regenerative medicine.
METHODS: In this review study, we studied numerous articles over the past two decades published on the application of exosomes in different diseases, as well as on perspectives and challenges in this field.
RESULTS: Recent advancements have shown that exosomes can be used as a drug delivery system. However, this approach faces challenges such as low efficiency and non-targeting effects. Different methods, including genetic, chemical, and physical modifications, are used to functionalize exosome surfaces to address these limitations. In some cases, a combination of modification methods has been used to produce smart exosomes. Different therapeutic agents have been inserted on exosome surfaces by different modification methods. These functionalized exosomes can effectively deliver therapeutic agents to target cells. A growing body of evidence shows that functionalized exosomes are promising for cancer therapy and regenerative medicine. They can not only effectively deliver therapeutic agents to cancer cells, inhibiting tumorigenesis, but also efficiently contribute to tissue repair and regeneration by increasing cell proliferation and angiogenesis. In this review, we discuss different modification methods used to functionalize exosomes and related studies. In addition, we describe the application of functionalized exosomes in cancer and regeneration, along with challenges and perspectives.
CONCLUSIONS: Although functionalized exosomes show promising results, further studies are essential for the clinical translation of these exosomes.

Keywords: Chemical modification; Exosomes; Extracellular vesicles; Modified exosomes

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12964-025-02268-y

Anal Biochem. 2025 May 30. pii: S0003-2697(25)00150-2. [Epub ahead of print]705 115912

Revolutionizing cancer diagnostics: The promise of exosome-based biosensors.

Mohamed J Saadh, Tamara Nazar Saeed, Ali Fawzi Al-Hussainy, Ashok Kumar Bishoyi, Suhas Ballal, Abhayveer Singh, V Kavitha, Zafar Aminov, Sada Ghalib Taher, Mariem Alwan, Mahmood Jawad, Hiba Mushtaq.

Exosomes are a group of extracellular nanovesicles that are produced by all cells, including cancer cells. They carry the biological information of mother cells and can facilitate tumor growth. Another advantage of exosomes is their abundance in all body fluids such as saliva, urine, blood and peritoneal fluid. Therefore, identifying and isolating them as biomarkers is useful in early cancer detection. However, due to the limited concentration of exosomes in clinical samples and their interference with the internal environment, accurate identification and effective diagnosis of cancer cells faces problems. Therefore, there is a need to implement highly sensitive and specific biosensors to detect exosomes from cancer tumors in complex biological environments. In the present review, biosensors developed for the detection of colon, prostate, breast and bladder cancers are discussed. We discuss various sensing platforms, including electrochemical, optical, and microfluidic-based approaches, and their integration with exosome isolation and characterization techniques. Challenges and future directions in the field are also addressed, highlighting the potential of exosome-based biosensors to revolutionize cancer diagnostics and personalized medicine.

Keywords: Biomarker; Biosensors; Cancer diagnostics; Exosome

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ab.2025.115912