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Contents of Circulating Extracellular Vesicles: Biomarkers in Colorectal Cancer Patients

ABSTRACT: Most cancer-related deaths are caused by distant metastases, which are tumour cells that have escaped from a primary tumour and passed into the bloodstream to colonize a new organ. In this context, communication between tumour and stromal cells is essential. Indeed, tumor cells interact with cells in the tumor microenvironment and are able to modify them to their advantage. Both extracellular vesicles (EVs) and exosomes are heterogeneous populations of small vesicles present in the tumor microenvironment and in body fluids that have recently emerged as powerful mediators involved in this communication and their transport in fluids. Tumor cells release large quantities of exosomes containing tumor markers, which can then spread to distant locations. The exosomes are of endosomal origin. They are composed of proteins, lipids, RNA and DNA, and they circulate in the bloodstream. They can be internalized by specific distant cells and thus deliver a functional message. It has recently been shown that tumor exosomes containing pro-metastatic factors form pre-metastatic niches, before the tumor cells actually arrive, while determining the metastatic organotropism of tumors. These properties are now opening up new avenues of research in tumor biomarkers. In recent years, several studies have highlighted different markers contained specifically in exosomes derived from cancer cells. Consequently, exosomes are considered as potential reservoirs of tumor biomarkers that could be clinically useful for the non-invasive diagnosis of cancer, with the advantage of being performed by liquid biopsy. The study of microRNA (miRNA) is of particular interest. Indeed, miRNAs are small non-coding RNAs (between 21 and 25 nucleotides) involved in the regulation of gene expression and which are frequently deregulated in cancer. Several studies underline that the variation of free miRNAs in the blood is correlated with the progression of the disease, particularly in colon cancer. However, the stability of free miRNAs is controversial. Therefore, exosomes represent a very advantageous means of transporting miRNAs in the blood, as they are able to protect miRNAs from degradation by RNAase. The hypothesis of the project is that circulating exosomes derived from tumours contain markers including specific miRNAs that could be used as biomarkers of early prognosis (survival and progression), easily measured in blood samples from patients with colon cancer. But other molecules contained in exosomes could also be of interest.

DISEASE(S): Colorectal Cancer,Colorectal Neoplasms

PROVIDER: 2349603 | ecrin-mdr-crc |

REPOSITORIES: ECRIN MDR

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Project description:The tissue stroma plays a major role in tumors natural history. Important programs for tumor progression such as epithelial mesenchymal transition are not activated as cell-autonomous processes but under the conditions of cross-talk between tumor and stroma. Adipose tissue is a major component of the stroma and, because of their extended half-life, adipocytes are witnesses of tissue exposures. This study compares breast fat in women with breast tumors to those in healthy women to try to define a signature that could be translated into biomarkers for cancer and / or cancer risk. In the tumor-bearing breasts, we sampled adipose tissues adjacent to or distant from the tumor. Parameters studied include: adipocytes size and density; immune cells infiltration, vascularization, functional excretion and gene expression. Adipose tissues from tumor-bearing breasts whether adjacent to or distant from the tumor, did not differ from each other by any of these parameters. By contrast, when compared to adipose tissues from tumor-free breasts, tissues from tumor-bearing breasts displayed functional characteristics pointing to some sort of \\"activation\\". They have the capacity to excrete twice as much of interleukin 8 (p=0.001) and they differentially express a set of around 200 genes, at a threshold of p-value 0.001, of which many belong to inflammation mediated by chemokine and cytokine signaling and integrin signaling pathways. The presence of mast cells appears as a strong predictor of IL-8 secretion capacity (Log2 scale p = 0.002). Therefore, breast fat tissues from breast cancer patients have distinct functional and expression profiles. Although a dialogue effect with the tumor cannot be ruled out, it is also possible that this status is individually defined thus determining the constitutive permissiveness of the tissue for the development of cancer. The activation of pathways that was observed could potentially be translated into biomarkers or therapeutic targets. This transcriptomic analysis has been performed on two types of samples at short and long distances from the tumour in comparison with samples from normal tissues on Illumina beadarrays.

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Contents of Circulating Extracellular Vesicles: Biomarkers in Colorectal Cancer Patients

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