外泌体在头颈部恶性肿瘤中的研究进展

 外泌体为细胞分泌的直径30~100 nm的细胞外囊泡,最早发现于绵羊网织红细胞培养上清中。早期研究认为外泌体仅仅为细胞排除代谢废物的“垃圾桶”,而近段时间越来越多的证据显示外泌体内的“货物”能够在细胞之间互相传递,从而在介导细胞间通讯、调节免疫反应、诱导肿瘤细胞耐药和转移等方面发挥着重要作用。头颈部恶性肿瘤作为高发恶性肿瘤之一,发病率较高、早期筛查指标缺乏及治疗效果不理想等制约着疾病的诊治。而外泌体在研究头颈部恶性肿瘤发生发展中的内在机制、筛选稳定的生物标记物进行诊断和判断预后以及应用靶向治疗等方面的研究日益增长,因此本文就目前关于外泌体在头颈部恶性肿瘤中的进展作一综述。

Research progress of exosomes in head and neck carcinomas

Exosomes are extracellular vesicles released by cells, which are 30-100 nm in diameter. It was originally found in culture supernatant of sheep reticulocyte. While early studies suggested that exosomes were thought as cellular garbage disposals removing metabolic waste from the releasing cells. In recent time, mounting evidence suggests that exosomal cargo can be transmitted between cells, thus playing an integral part in aspects of mediating cell-cell communication, regulating immunoreaction, inducing chemotherapy resistance, and facilitating metastasis. Head and neck carcinoma is one of malignant tumors with high risk, and it restricts the diagnosis and treatment due to the high incidence, deficiency of early screening test and non-ideal therapeutic effect. The researches are growing on exosomes in connection to studying the internal mechanism of development and progression of head and neck carcinomas, applying targeted therapy, and screening out stable biomarkers to diagnose and judge the prognosis. So in this review, we summarized the research progresses of exosomes in head and neck carcinomas.