TY - JOUR
T1 - Extracellular Vesicles in Oncology
T2 - Progress and Pitfalls in the Methods of Isolation and Analysis
AU - Lucchetti, Donatella
AU - Fattorossi, Andrea
AU - Sgambato, Alessandro
N1 - © 2018 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.
PY - 2019/1
Y1 - 2019/1
N2 - The possibility to study solid tumors through the analysis of extracellular vesicles in biological fluids is one of the most exciting and rapidly advancing field in cancer research. The extracellular vesicles are tiny sacs released in both physiological and pathological conditions and can be used to monitor the evolution of several pathological states, including neoplastic diseases. Indeed, these vesicles carry biological informations and can affect the behavior of recipient cells by transferring proteins, DNA, RNA, and microRNA. In this review the authors analyze the methods to collect biological fluid samples (urine, plasma/serum, and cell supernatant), and to isolate and quantify extracellular vesicles highlighting advantages and drawbacks. Moreover, the authors provide an overview on the adoption and the advantages of the methods (such as digital PCR, next generation sequencing, reverse-phase protein microarrays, flow-cytometry, etc.) most frequently used to analyze the molecular content of extracellular vesicles. Despite the great scientific interest on this topic, there is still a great uncertainty about which is the best method for the collection, isolation, quantification, and molecular evaluation of these vesicles and a standardization is needed. The features of EVs make them ideal candidates for liquid biopsy-based biomarkers. However, the small size of EVs makes their analysis very difficult and requires multiple advanced technologies, being therefore a limitation.
AB - The possibility to study solid tumors through the analysis of extracellular vesicles in biological fluids is one of the most exciting and rapidly advancing field in cancer research. The extracellular vesicles are tiny sacs released in both physiological and pathological conditions and can be used to monitor the evolution of several pathological states, including neoplastic diseases. Indeed, these vesicles carry biological informations and can affect the behavior of recipient cells by transferring proteins, DNA, RNA, and microRNA. In this review the authors analyze the methods to collect biological fluid samples (urine, plasma/serum, and cell supernatant), and to isolate and quantify extracellular vesicles highlighting advantages and drawbacks. Moreover, the authors provide an overview on the adoption and the advantages of the methods (such as digital PCR, next generation sequencing, reverse-phase protein microarrays, flow-cytometry, etc.) most frequently used to analyze the molecular content of extracellular vesicles. Despite the great scientific interest on this topic, there is still a great uncertainty about which is the best method for the collection, isolation, quantification, and molecular evaluation of these vesicles and a standardization is needed. The features of EVs make them ideal candidates for liquid biopsy-based biomarkers. However, the small size of EVs makes their analysis very difficult and requires multiple advanced technologies, being therefore a limitation.
KW - Animals
KW - Biomarkers/metabolism
KW - DNA/metabolism
KW - Extracellular Vesicles/chemistry
KW - Humans
KW - MicroRNAs/metabolism
KW - RNA/metabolism
U2 - 10.1002/biot.201700716
DO - 10.1002/biot.201700716
M3 - Review article
C2 - 29878510
VL - 14
SP - e1700716
JO - Biotechnology Journal
JF - Biotechnology Journal
SN - 1860-6768
IS - 1
ER -