title: Secretomic analysis of extracellular vesicles originating from polyomavirus-negative and polyomavirus-positive Merkel cell carcinoma cell lines.
abstract: Extracellular vesicles or exosomes constitute an evolutionarily conserved mechanism of intercellular signaling. Exosomes are gaining an increasing amount of attention due to their role in pathologies, including malignancy, their importance as prognostic and diagnostic markers, and their potential as a therapeutic tool. Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is an aggressive form of skin cancer with a poor prognosis. Because an effective systemic treatment for this cancer type is currently not available, an exosome-based therapy was proposed. However, comprehensive secretome profiling has not been performed for MCC. To help unveil the putative contribution of exosomes in MCC, we studied the protein content of MCC-derived exosomes. Since approximately 80% of all MCC cases contain Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV), the secretomes of two MCPyV-negative and two MCPyV-positive MCC cell lines were compared. We identified with high confidence 164 exosome-derived proteins common for all four cell lines that were annotated in ExoCarta and Vesiclepedia databases. These include proteins implicated in motility, metastasis and tumor progression, such as integrins and tetraspanins, intracellular signaling molecules, chaperones, proteasomal proteins, and translation factors. Additional virus-negative and virus-positive MCC cell lines should be examined to identify highly representative exosomal proteins that may provide reliable prognostic and diagnostic biomarkers, as well as targets for treatment in the future. Data are available via ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD004198.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Tromsø, Tromsø, Norway. aelita.g.konstantinell@uit.no.
authors.forename: Aelita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Konstantinell
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Tromsø, Tromsø, Norway.
authors.forename: Jack-Ansgar
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Bruun
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Tromsø, Tromsø, Norway.
authors.forename: Randi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Olsen
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Tromsø, Tromsø, Norway.
authors.forename: Augusta
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aspar
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Tromsø, Tromsø, Norway.
authors.forename: Nataša
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Škalko-Basnet
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Tromsø, Tromsø, Norway.
authors.forename: Baldur
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sveinbjørnsson
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Tromsø, Tromsø, Norway.
authors.forename: Ugo
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Moens
mesh_terms: D015266:Carcinoma, Merkel Cell / Q000378:metabolism*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D000067128:Extracellular Vesicles / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D059965:Merkel cell polyomavirus / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism
keywords: Cancer; Cell biology; Exosome; Merkel cell carcinoma; Polyomavirus