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ABSTRACT
Introduction
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) play an important role in cell–cell communication and regulation of various cellular functions under physiological and pathophysiological conditions through transferring their cargo to recipient cells. Molecular constituents of EVs are a fingerprinting profile of secreting cells which can be used as promising prognostic, diagnostic, and drug-response biomarkers in clinical settings.
Areas covered
The present study provides a brief introduction about the biology of EVs and reviews methodologies used for EV isolation and characterization as well as high-throughput strategies to analyze EV contents. Furthermore, this review highlights the importance and unique role of EVs in the development and progression of gastrointestinal (GI) diseases, especially GI cancers, and then discusses their potential use, particularly those isolated from body fluids, in diagnosis and prognosis of GI diseases.
Expert opinion
In-depth analysis of EV content can lead to the identification of new potential biomarkers for early diagnosis and prognosis prediction of GI diseases. The use of a more targeted approach by establishing more reproducible and standardized methods to decrease variations and obtain desired EV population as well as revisiting large pools of identified biomarkers and their evaluation in larger patient cohorts can result in the introduction of more reliable biomarkers in clinic.
Article highlights
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) circulate in almost all body fluids and are transmitted to neighboring or distant cells, and thus can contribute to disease pathogenesis and progression.
Molecular contents (DNA, RNA, and protein) of EVs isolated from body fluids are a molecular signature of secreting cells that can serve as non-invasive diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for gastrointestinal (GI) diseases.
Despite tremendous progress in the development of purification methods, there is still a need for the establishment of a standard and robust method to obtain the desired EV population with the least effects on EV-components.
To date, a large number of candidate EV biomarkers have been introduced for the diagnosis and prognosis of GI diseases. Improving the validation phase, reconsidering the large pools of identified biomarkers in larger patient cohorts, and focusing on a multicomponent platform can accelerate the entry of more accurate EV biomarkers into the clinic. These strategies will definitely decrease delay in diagnosis and mortality rate of GI cancers
Ethical approval
No ethical approvals are required for this review.
Informed consent
Informed consent is not required for this review.
Declaration of interest
The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose. The authors have no 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. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership, or options, expert testimony, grants, or patents received or pending, or royalties.
Reviewer disclosures
Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.
Authors’ contributions
R Heydari performed the literature search and wrote the manuscript. M Abdollahpour‐Alitappeh and F Shekari revised the manuscript. A Meyfour wrote and supervised the manuscript.