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The Emerging Role of Exosomes in Cancer Progression and Their Potential as Therapy Targets

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Recent Trends in Cancer Biology: Spotlight on Signaling Cascades and microRNAs

Abstract

Exosomes are a specific population of extracellular vesicles (EVs) that originate from an endocytic process. Virtually every cell type secretes exosomes and their size ranges from 40 to 150 nm. Exosomes are surrounded by a lipid bilayer and contain functional cargo that comprises proteins, lipids and genetic material such as protein, RNA and DNA. In the recent years, several studies have reported the role of exosomes as mediators of intercellular communication. Exosomes serve as vehicles used by cancer cells and stromal cells to influence both local and distant metastatic sites, by reprogramming recipient cells. This chapter will focus on the mechanisms underlying the role of exosomes in tumor development, metastasis, immune escape, therapy resistance, microenvironment reprogramming and angiogenesis. Furthermore, we will also discuss the potential to target exosomes as a new therapeutic strategy in cancer.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by: FEDER - Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional funds through the COMPETE 2020 - Operacional Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation (POCI), Portugal 2020, and by Portuguese funds through FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia/Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação in the framework of the projects “Institute for Research and Innovation in Health Sciences” (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007274), and “Papel dos Exosomas na Heterogeneidade Tumoral: Mais do Que Simples Vesículas” (PTDC/BIM-ONC/2754/2014); and Maratonas da Saúde; and by NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000029, supported by Norte Portugal Regional Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). SAM is supported by FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology (IF/00543/2013). C. F. Ruivo is supported by FCT (PTDC/BIM-ONC/2754/2014). We thank Dr. Nuno Barros for the help with the design of the figures included in this chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Carolina F. Ruivo & Sónia A. Melo

  2. Institute of Pathology and Molecular Immunology of the University of Porto (IPATIMUP), Porto, Portugal

    Carolina F. Ruivo & Sónia A. Melo

  3. Medical Faculty of the University of Porto (FMUP), Porto, Portugal

    Sónia A. Melo

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  1. Carolina F. Ruivo
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Correspondence to Sónia A. Melo .

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  1. Department of Biochemistry, Rashid Latif Medical College (RLMC), Lahore, Pakistan

    Sundas Fayyaz

  2. Institute of Biomedical and Genetic Engineering (IBGE), Islamabad, Pakistan

    Ammad Ahmad Farooqi

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Ruivo, C.F., Melo, S.A. (2018). The Emerging Role of Exosomes in Cancer Progression and Their Potential as Therapy Targets. In: Fayyaz, S., Farooqi, A. (eds) Recent Trends in Cancer Biology: Spotlight on Signaling Cascades and microRNAs. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71553-7_3

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