Exosomes: Emerging Players of Intercellular Communication in Tumor Microenvironment

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

• Level A · Stronger Clinical Evidence
• Level B · Emerging clinical evidence with positive signals
• Level C · Early human research exploring benefits
• Level D · Scientific groundwork from lab and animal studies
• Emerging · Emerging topic under active research

Abstract (original English)

Seminal discoveries have established the role of complex tumor microenvironment (TME) in cancer progression; and later on also uncovered that vesiculation is an integral part of intercellular communication among various cell types in coordinating the tumor assembly in a dynamic manner. Exosomes are small membrane bound endosomal vesicles, which are classically known for their role in discarding cellular wastes; however, recent reports underlined their novel role in malignancy by their release from cells into the TME. Since then, the role of exosomes have been a subject of increasing interest, as exosome mediated intercellular communications offer a novel reciprocal relationship between cancer and stromal cells within the TME and modulate the fate and function of the recipient cells to finally shape the tumor progression. Exosomes are characterised by different features including size, content and mode of delivery; and its cargo delivers interesting bioactive components in the form of proteins, miRNAs or other molecules to the target cell. In the pursuit of further study of exosomes, it was found that with the help of its distinct bioactive components, exosomes specifically regulate tumor growth, angiogenesis, metastasis as well as drug resistance properties. In fact, it acts as a bridge between different signaling networks, present inside the spatially distant cells of the hete

Evidence level

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

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