Aethlon Medical Inc (AEMD)

[ANESRI]

The Roles of Tumor-Derived Exosomes in Cancer Pathogenesis

http://www.hindawi.com/journals/cdi/2011/842849/


The protumorigenic potential of tumor-derived exosomes in cancer patients is supported by the observations that in patients with breast or ovarian cancer, the level of circulating exosomes and exosomes with tumor markers is much higher than nonmalignant individuals and increases with tumor progression [29, 105], and that exosomes isolated from the sera of patients with oral or ovarian cancer can impair T lymphocytes function and induce their apoptosis [54, 106]. Therefore, it has been proposed that removing immunosuppressive tumor-derived exosomes from the blood circulation of a cancer patient would improve antitumor immune response and delay the progression and spread of malignancy. A novel hollow-fiber cartridge (Hemopurifier) system which is able to selectively deplete circulating virus using a lectin-based resin with high affinity for glycosylated viral surface proteins was developed by the San Diego biotechnology company Aethlon Medical [107]. Effective removal of HIV particles has been demonstrated [108–110] and this system has become an attractive device for depletion of exosomes, which have a size similar to viral particles and are also highly glycosylated on their membrane proteins. The selective removal of exosomes can be enhanced by attaching antibodies against exosome surface proteins onto the resin of the cartridge. However, there are still technical barriers in how to carefully distinguish tumor-derived from nontumor-derived exosomes and concerns such as the physiological outcome of removing all exosome-like vesicles in the blood.