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Extracellular Vesicles As miRNA Nano-Shuttles: Dual Role in Tumor Progression

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Abstract

Tumor-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) have a pleiotropic role in cancer, interacting with target cells of the tumor microenvironment, such as fibroblasts, immune and endothelial cells. EVs can modulate tumor progression, angiogenic switch, metastasis, and immune escape. These vesicles are nano-shuttles containing a wide spectrum of miRNAs that contribute to tumor progression. MiRNAs contained in extracellular vesicles (EV-miRNAs) are disseminated in the extracellular space and are able to influence the expression of target genes with either tumor suppressor or oncogenic functions, depending on both parental and target cells. Metastatic cancer cells can balance their oncogenic potential by expressing miRNAs with oncogenic function, whilst exporting miRNAs with tumor suppressor roles out of the cells. Importantly, treatment of cancer cells with specific natural and chemical compounds could induce the elimination of miRNAs with oncogenic function, thereby reducing their aggressiveness. In this review, we discuss the mechanisms by which EV-miRNAs, acting as miRNAs with oncogenic or tumor suppressor functions, could contribute to cancer progression.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Axelle Staes for English language editing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Phase I-Early Clinical Trials Unit, Oncology Department, Antwerp University Hospital (UZA), Wilrijkstraat 10, 2650, Edegem, Belgium

    Marzia Pucci, Pablo Reclusa Asiáin, Elena Duréndez Sáez, Mahafarin Malarani, Christian Rolfo & Simona Taverna

  2. Department of Surgical, Oncological and Stomatological Disciplines, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy

    Marzia Pucci, Pablo Reclusa Asiáin, Mahafarin Malarani & Francesco Passiglia

  3. Department of Biopathology and Medical Biotechnologies, Section of Biology and Genetics, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy

    Marzia Pucci & Simona Fontana

  4. Molecular Oncology Laboratory, General University Hospital Research Foundation, Avda Tres Cruces 2, 46014, Valencia, Spain

    Elena Duréndez Sáez & Eloisa Jantus-Lewintre

  5. Department of Biotechnology, Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain

    Elena Duréndez Sáez & Eloisa Jantus-Lewintre

  6. CIBERONC, Valencia, Spain

    Eloisa Jantus-Lewintre

  7. Nanomedicine & Biotechnology Research Unit, Department of Pharmaceutics, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Shahanavaj Khan

  8. Department of Bioscience, Shri Ram Group of College (SRGC), Muzaffarnagar, India

    Shahanavaj Khan

  9. Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA

    Aung Naing

  10. Thoracic Oncology Program, Memorial Cancer Institute, Memorial Health Care System/Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA

    Luis E. Raez

  11. Center for Oncological Research (CORE) Antwerp University, Antwerpen, Belgium

    Christian Rolfo

  12. Institute of Biomedicine and Molecular Immunology (IBIM), National Research Council, Palermo, Italy

    Simona Taverna

Authors
  1. Marzia Pucci
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  2. Pablo Reclusa Asiáin
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  3. Elena Duréndez Sáez
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  4. Eloisa Jantus-Lewintre
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  5. Mahafarin Malarani
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  6. Shahanavaj Khan
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  7. Simona Fontana
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  8. Aung Naing
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  9. Francesco Passiglia
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  10. Luis E. Raez
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  11. Christian Rolfo
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  12. Simona Taverna
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Christian Rolfo or Simona Taverna.

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Funding

Elena Durendez has a predoctoral fellowship by Asociacion Española Contra el Cancer (AECC, Valencia, Spain).

Conflict of Interest

LR gets research support from EXOSOME DX. All other authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

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Pucci, M., Reclusa Asiáin, P., Duréndez Sáez, E. et al. Extracellular Vesicles As miRNA Nano-Shuttles: Dual Role in Tumor Progression. Targ Oncol 13, 175–187 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11523-018-0551-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11523-018-0551-8

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