外泌体传输microRNA在肿瘤研究中的进展*

外泌体是一类可以在细胞间传递直径为30～100 nm的内吞衍生囊泡，可包含与其来源和功能相关的蛋白质和RNA 等物质。外泌体作为一种天然的载体，已被视为一种新型的药物传输系统用于肿瘤的治疗。microRNA（miRNA ）是一类新型的RNA调控基因，不仅仅存在于细胞内，亦存在于细胞外，这些细胞外miRNA 可作为分泌型信号分子影响受体细胞表型，并一定程度上反映出供体细胞内的分子改变，具有一定的诊断及潜在的治疗用途。肿瘤患者血液中外泌体高于正常人，并能够包裹肿瘤相关miRNA 行使生物学功能，因此机体通过外泌体传输特异性miRNA 可能在肿瘤的发病过程中扮演着重要的角色。本文将对外泌体作为miRNA 的传输载体在肿瘤发生发展以及肿瘤治疗等方面的研究进行综述。 

Progress on exosomal transmission of microRNAs in cancer research

Exosomes are cell-derived vesicles that contain protein and RNA from the same source and function. The vesicle has a diam-eter between 30 and 100 nm. Exosomes are the natural carriers and have been recently used as drug delivery system for cancer treat-ment. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) function in RNA silencing and regulation of gene expression. They can exist as intracellular and extracellu-lar miRNAs. Extracellular miRNAs can function as secreted signaling molecules that affect receptor cell phenotype. They can also re-flect molecular changes in donor cells. Therefore, extracellular miRNAs can be potentially used for diagnosis and therapeutics. Studies show that the volume of exosomes in cancer patients' blood is higher than that in normal controls. The ability to package cancer-relat-ed miRNAs is a biological function of exosomes. In conclusion, specific miRNAs transferred by exosomes may play an important role in the pathogenesis of tumor or cancer. This paper presents a summary of research on exosomes as the carrier of miRNAs in the develop-ment and treatment of cancer.