title: The Role of Extracellular Vesicles: An Epigenetic View of the Cancer Microenvironment.
abstract: Exosomes, microvesicles, and other extracellular vesicles are released by many cell types, including cancer cells and cancer-related immune cells. Extracellular vesicles can directly or indirectly facilitate the transfer of bioinformation to recipient cells or to the extracellular environment. In cancer, exosomes have been implicated in tumor initiation, proliferation, and metastasis. Extracellular vesicles can transmit proteins and nucleic acids that participate in DNA methylation, histone modification, and posttranscriptional regulation of RNA. Factors transmitted by extracellular vesicles reflect the donor cell status, and extracellular vesicles derived from tumor cells may be also responsible for altering expression of tumor promoting and tumor suppressing genes in recipient cells. Thus, circulating extracellular vesicles may act as biomarkers of cancer, and detection of these biomarkers may be applied to diagnosis or assessment of prognosis in patients with cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Ren Ji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Zhongrun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Ren Ji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Xi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Ren Ji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Yongming
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Nanjing Brain Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, No. 264, Guangzhou Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210000, China.
authors.forename: Wenbin
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000235:genetics; D002450:Cell Communication / Q000235:genetics; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic / Q000235:genetics; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D055354:Exosomes / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D000067128:Extracellular Vesicles / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D059016:Tumor Microenvironment / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor