Tissue Cross-Talk and Exosomal MicroRNAs

摘要

Over the last 10 years, the interest in microRNAs has grown rapidly, and the characterization of these short non-coding RNA sequences has become crucial due to their involvement and role in several widespread diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, kidney diseases, and diabetes, as well as developmental diseases. The increased understanding of the biology of microRNAs has triggered the development of important tools to study their function and new therapeutic opportunities to treat disease, offering a clear example of how the scientific translational approach plays a crucial role in scientific research in the 21st century. More recently, this interest in microRNAs has increased further as a result of the discovery of exosome microRNAs, microRNAs contained in endogenous vesicles isolated from biological fluids such as breast milk, blood, serum, urine, cerebrospinal fluid, and semen. MicroRNAs represent powerful potential biomarkers for the detection of diseases at an early stage, when the chances of successful treatment and outcomes (drug mediated or surgical) are higher. Furthermore, recent publications have highlighted the role of exosomal microRNAs in cell-to-cell communication, adding new information to the importance of these exosome and vesicles. Much work still needs to be done to better understand the biogenesis and loading and dispersion of exosomes and microvesicles as well to characterize the exosomal content in terms of functionality and activity, but current data already suggest that these exosomes could be potential therapeutic targets.