Extracellular vesicles as a novel approach for breast cancer therapeutics. (28th February 2023) - Lee, Yujin
Abstract: Breast cancer (BC) still lacks effective management approaches to control metastatic and therapy-resistant disease. Extracellular vesicles (EVs), with a diameter of 50–1000 nm, are secreted by all types of living cells, are protected by a lipid bilayer and encapsulate biological cargos including RNAs, proteins and lipids. They play an important role in intercellular communications and are significantly associated with pathological conditions. Accumulating evidence indicates that cancer cells secrete EVs and communicate with neighboring cells within the tumor microenvironment (TME), which plays an important role in BC metastasis, immune escape and chemoresistance, thus providing a new therapeutic window. EVs can stimulate angiogenesis and extracellular matrix remodeling, establish premetastatic niches, inhibit immune response and promote cancer metastasis. Recent advances have demonstrated that EVs are a potential therapeutic target or carrier and have emerged as promising strategies for BC treatment. In this review, we summarize the role of EVs in BC metastasis, chemoresistance and immune escape, which provides the foundation for developing novel therapeutic approaches. We also focus on current EV-based drug delivery strategies in BC and EV cargo-targeted BC therapy and discuss the limitations and future perspectives of EV-based drug delivery in BC. Highlights: Current clinical treatments for BC patients are challenging due to low efficacy, drug resistance and off-toxicity of therapy. EV cargo within TME is associated with angiogenesis, progression, immune escape, metastasis and chemoresistance of BC. EVs can be used as a drug delivery vehicle or therapeutic targets for novel BC therapy. EV-based BC therapy holds promise to develop efficient drug delivery and improve therapeutic efficacy in clinic.