Aethlon Medical Inc (AEMD)

[ANESRI]

Exosomes as Biomarker Treasure Chests for Prostate Cancer

Diederick Duijvesz a, Theo Luider b, Chris H. Bangma a, Guido Jenster a .

Accepted 20 December 2010, Published online 29 December 2010, pages 823 - 831

Exosomes as biomarker treasure chests

The molecular content of exosomes is dependent on their cell origin and strongly associates with the original cellular conditions [57]. Therefore, the identification of tissue- or disease-specific exosomal proteins and RNAs will enable the use of these vesicles as a source of new biomarkers. Since the late 1990s, an increasing number of studies have investigated exosomes’ protein content and their potential diagnostic and prognostic values in various types of cancer, resulting in a comprehensive database consisting of 64 papers and a total of 2400 different proteins [58]. All of these protein identifications have been obtained by mass spectrometry. In terms of RNAs, the first study on exosomes was performed in 2007 [28]. Using microarray technology, research has shown that exosomes from mouse-derived bone marrow cells contain messenger RNAs (mRNAs) and miRNAs. An increasing number of papers in which microarrays were used have described the potential role of proteins and miRNAs as diagnostic and prognostic tools [59], [60], and [61].

Until 2002, exosomes had been predominantly isolated and analysed from in vitro cell lines. More recent studies have shown that these vesicles can be isolated from body fluids, such as blood, urine, semen, amniotic fluid, malignant and pleural effusions, bronchoalveolar fluid, synovial fluid, saliva, and breast milk. These findings demonstrate that exosomes are present in all body fluids and can be used for determining health status [62].