Informace o publikaci
The importance of extracellular vesicles as potential biomarkers of head and neck cancer
| Autoři | |
|---|---|
| Rok publikování | 2024 |
| Druh | Další prezentace na konferencích |
| Fakulta / Pracoviště MU | |
| Citace | |
| Popis | Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is, despite significant progress in cancer therapy, linked with poor prognosis due to the lack of early detection markers. Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) have recently gained a lot of attention, as they are involved in multiple aspects of cancer pathogenesis. Furthermore, CAFs often outgrow tumor cells and even resist treatment, thus they can serve as potential targets for anticancer therapies. These tumor-promoting effects are, besides others, mediated by extracellular vesicles (EVs). Thus, EV content can serve as a promising diagnostic and prognostic cancer biomarker. For the EV isolation, we used an affinity method based on phosphatidylserine (PS)-binding magnetic beads to separate PS-positive EVs (PS-EVs) from cell culture media of FaDu cell line (hypopharyngeal carcinoma) and CAFs derived from HNSCC patients. Since PS serves as an “eat me signal”, we presumed that PS-EVs would be uptaken by recipient cells. All EV samples were characterised by size (DLS), morphology (cryo-EM, TEM), typical protein markers (WB), and protein and RNA content. Our results showed that modulators of autophagy machinery change the protein content of EVs, which needs to be reminded when used in cancer therapy. Interestingly, cancer-derived EVs were highly enriched in mitochondrial proteins, especially when glutamine starvation was induced in cancer cells. The protein content of CAF-derived EVs seems to correspond with different stages of the disease, which points to the importance of CAFs and EVs as promising biomarkers in HNSCC. |