Exosomes: a potential tool in the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of patients with colorectal cancer.

Abstract

Colorectal cancer (CRC), a commonly diagnosed malignancy, is one of the most frequent causes of cancer-related deaths worldwide. To effectively lower the death rate from this disease, it is essential to create public health methods, including developing new biomarkers that facilitate screening, diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy response prediction. CRC-derived Exosomes are a type of extracellular vesicle that transport functional molecules like proteins, lipids, nucleic acids (DNA, mRNA, miRNA, lncRNA, and noncoding RNA), and other metabolites, which act as molecular cargos to facilitate transportation. Exosomes generated and secreted from cancer cells are key biomarkers for early, noninvasive cancer diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment response, with their biogenesis in CRC offering molecular insights. Their expression varies across time, tissues, and disease stages. Thus, the development of innovative and effective techniques for isolating and detecting exosomes holds great potential for tumor diagnosis, prognosis prediction, and developing techniques (MSC-derived exosome, DC-derived exosome, engineered exosome, etc.) and their contents to improve the specificity and efficacy of therapies for patients with CRC. This review explores the features and formation of CRC-derived exosomes, highlighting their diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic significance through a comprehensive analysis of exosome extraction, identification, purification, and documented biological roles in existing literature.