In 2013, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to three scientists in recognition of their outstanding contributions in the field of intercellular vesicle transport regulation mechanisms, which pushed the enthusiasm of exosomes research to a climax.
At present, it is generally believed that unlike common microvesicles, which are directly generated by cell budding and detachment, the formation of exosomes begins with cell invagination to form early endosomes, followed by the regulation of endosomal transport complexes and some related proteins, early endosomal budding to form MVBs composed of multiple intraluminal vesicles, which finally fuse with the cell membrane to the external secretory cavity vesicles under the regulation of RAB enzymes in the GTPase family, that is, exosomes.
Function of exosomes In recent years, more and more studies have shown that exosomes play an extremely important role in tumor diagnosis, migration and growth, tissue damage repair, immune antigen presentation and neurodegenerative diseases.
immobilized known tumor surface markers on the chip and detected cell and plasma exosome markers by antibody chip, respectively, and about 40% of cancer cell surface markers were reflected on the vesicle surface, indicating that antibody chip detection of exosome surface proteins is expected to be applied in tumor diagnosis.
It has been found that the cell surface proteoglycan phosphatidylinositol glycan-1 is abundant in the blood exosomes of individuals with pancreatic cancer.
With the study of functional proteins, mRNAs and miRNAs contained in exosomes, the role of exosomes in signal transduction in vivo has also been gradually recognized, and they play an extremely important role in the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases, nervous system diseases and tumors.