Exosomal biomarkers for cancer diagnosis and patient monitoring

ABSTRACT

Introduction: In recent years, extensive research has been conducted on using exosomes as biomarkers for cancer detection. Exosomes are 40–150 nm-sized extracellular vesicles released by all cell types, including tumor cells. Exosomes are stable in body fluids due to their lipid bilayer member and often contain DNA, RNA, and proteins. These exosomes can be harvested from blood, plasma, serum, urine, or saliva and analyzed for tumor-relevant mutations. Thus, exosomes provide an alternative to current methods of tumor detection.

Areas covered: This review discusses the use of exosomal diagnostics in various tumor types as well as their examination in various clinical trials. The authors also discuss the limitations of exosome-based diagnostics in the clinical setting and provide examples of several studies in which the development and usage of microfluidic chips and nano-sensing devices have been utilized to address these obstacles.

Expert commentary: In recent years, exosomes and their contents have exhibited potential as novel tumor detection markers despite the labor involved in their harvest and isolation. Despite this, much work is being done to optimize exosome capture and analysis. Thus, their roles as biomarkers in the clinical setting appear promising.

KEYWORDS:

• Biomarkers
• cancer detection
• diagnostics
• exosomes
• extracellular vesicles
• microfluidic chips
• nano-sensors
• tumor detection

Article Highlights

• There are several clinical trials analyzing the effectiveness of exosomes for both diagnosing tumor patients and monitoring patients undergoing therapy

• A combination of exosome-specific and tumor-specific markers found on exosomes suggests a reliable alternative to current methods of tumor detection

• The major hurdle for clinical use of exosomes is cost and time

• Various microfluidic chips and nano-sensors are addressing the current limitations of exosomal diagnostics

Declaration of interest

The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

Reviewers Disclosure

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial relationships or otherwise to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

Florida Atlantic University FAU Faculty Mentoring Award Institute for Sensing and Embedded Networking Syst Start-up support from FAU College of Engineering U.S. Department of Health and Human Services > National Institutes of Health [NIH R15AI127214].