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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is the continuation of our 2020 Special Issue “Extracellular Vesicles and Metastatic Niche 2.0” and 2019 Special Issue “Extracellular Vesicles and Metastatic Niche”.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are membrane-enclosed particles released by both normal and tumor cells that operate as heterogeneous multisignal messengers involved in cell-to cell communication.

In cancer, EVs mediate tumor–stroma interactions affecting, among other things, cell proliferation, angiogenesis, immune surveillance, and drug resistance, thus supporting cancer growth. The tumor-promoting activities of EVs are not restricted to the local tumor microenvironment but also include dissemination, since EVs can enter the blood circulation, reach distant organs and, once there, educate resident cells to generate favorable environmental conditions; this process is known as pre-metastatic niche formation.

This Special Issue, “Extracellular Vesicles and Metastatic Niche 3.0”, of the International Journal of Molecular Sciences will comprise a selection of research papers and reviews covering various aspects of biochemistry and molecular and cellular biology on the role of EVs in the metastatic niche. Contributions on cell signaling pathways involved, functional studies, molecular characterization, as well as their impact on possible clinical implications, will be welcome. Studies on the set-up of specific in vitro and in vivo models will also be considered.

Dr. Ilaria Giusti
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Extracellular vesicles
Metastatic niche
Cancer
EMT
Exosomes
Metastasis
Microvesicles
Tumor dormancy
Tumor microenvironment

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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24 pages, 11810 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Proteomic Landscape of Extracellular Vesicles for Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma Subtyping

by Ana Sofia Carvalho, Henrique Baeta, Andreia F. A. Henriques, Mostafa Ejtehadifar, Erin M. Tranfield, Ana Laura Sousa, Ana Farinho, Bruno Costa Silva, José Cabeçadas, Paula Gameiro, Maria Gomes da Silva, Hans Christian Beck and Rune Matthiesen

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2021, 22(20), 11004; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijms222011004 - 12 Oct 2021

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3665

Abstract

The role of extracellular vesicles (EVs) proteome in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) pathology, subclassification, and patient screening is unexplored. We analyzed by state-of-the-art mass spectrometry the whole cell and secreted extracellular vesicles (EVs) proteomes of different molecular subtypes of DLBCL, germinal center B cell (GCB subtype), and activated B cell (ABC subtype). After quality control assessment, we compared whole-cell and secreted EVs proteomes of the two cell-of-origin (COO) categories, GCB and ABC subtypes, resulting in 288/1115 significantly differential expressed proteins from the whole-cell proteome and 228/608 proteins from EVs (adjust p-value < 0.05/p-value < 0.05). In our preclinical model system, we demonstrated that the EV proteome and the whole-cell proteome possess the capacity to separate cell lines into ABC and GCB subtypes. KEGG functional analysis and GO enrichment analysis for cellular component, molecular function, and biological process of differential expressed proteins (DEP) between ABC and GCB EVs showed a significant enrichment of pathways involved in immune response function. Other enriched functional categories for DEPs constitute cellular signaling and intracellular trafficking such as B-cell receptor (BCR), Fc_gamma R-mediated phagocytosis, ErbB signaling, and endocytosis. Our results suggest EVs can be explored as a tool for patient diagnosis, follow-up, and disease monitoring. Finally, this study proposes novel drug targets based on highly expressed proteins, for which antitumor drugs are available suggesting potential combinatorial therapies for aggressive forms of DLBCL. Data are available via ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD028267. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Extracellular Vesicles and Metastatic Niche 3.0)

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Review

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22 pages, 3201 KiB

Open AccessReview

Extracellular Vesicle Proteome in Prostate Cancer: A Comparative Analysis of Mass Spectrometry Studies

by Rui Miguel Marques Bernardino, Ricardo Leão, Rui Henrique, Luis Campos Pinheiro, Prashant Kumar, Prashanth Suravajhala, Hans Christian Beck, Ana Sofia Carvalho and Rune Matthiesen

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2021, 22(24), 13605; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijms222413605 - 19 Dec 2021

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 5587

Abstract

Molecular diagnostics based on discovery research holds the promise of improving screening methods for prostate cancer (PCa). Furthermore, the congregated information prompts the question whether the urinary extracellular vesicles (uEV) proteome has been thoroughly explored, especially at the proteome level. In fact, most extracellular vesicles (EV) based biomarker studies have mainly targeted plasma or serum. Therefore, in this study, we aim to inquire about possible strategies for urinary biomarker discovery particularly focused on the proteome of urine EVs. Proteomics data deposited in the PRIDE archive were reanalyzed to target identifications of potential PCa markers. Network analysis of the markers proposed by different prostate cancer studies revealed moderate overlap. The recent throughput improvements in mass spectrometry together with the network analysis performed in this study, suggest that a larger standardized cohort may provide potential biomarkers that are able to fully characterize the heterogeneity of PCa. According to our analysis PCa studies based on urinary EV proteome presents higher protein coverage compared to plasma, plasma EV, and voided urine proteome. This together with a direct interaction of the prostate gland and urethra makes uEVs an attractive option for protein biomarker studies. In addition, urinary proteome based PCa studies must also evaluate samples from bladder and renal cancers to assess specificity for PCa. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Extracellular Vesicles and Metastatic Niche 3.0)

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