Some recent research conducted on different types of adult solid tumors have shown how exosomes (tiny vesicles released by tumor cells and released into the bloodstream) contain proteins and genetic material and the latter can be transferred to healthy cells which are also far from the tumor, favoring the progression of the disease.
I study. In particular, the results of a study coordinated by researcher Lara Mussolin of the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health of the University of Padua, published in Cancer Communications, revealed the fundamental role that exosomes circulating in the bloodstream of young patients with anaplastic lymphoma have in the spread of metastases. This important result was made possible by the support of the AIRC Foundation.
Anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL) is part of the non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL) of the pediatric age, a heterogeneous set of diseases that can also present clinically in an acute and aggressive form, in which a still substantial fraction of patients who do not responds to therapy may relapse and not recover, despite improvements in cure rates in recent years.
«In a group of patients, after the diagnosis of anaplastic large cell lymphoma and before starting the therapies, we analyzed, with the technique of small-RNA sequencingthe load of small molecules, called microRNAs, which were found in the exosomes of the plasma», explains Lara Mussolin.
An increase. Bioinformatic analyzes have shown a significant increase of these small molecules (called miR-122-5p) in the plasma exosomes of patients with advanced disease stage.
Subsequent experiments have shown that this may favor the creation of a pre-metastatic “niche” that is welcoming for tumor cells, thus promoting both the aggressiveness of the disease and the dissemination of anaplastic large cell lymphoma tumor cells.
«We noticed», Lara Mussolin points out, «that miR-122-5p is not present in the biopsy of the patients’ primary tumor, nor in the ALCL cell lines, while it is found in abundance in the liver. These data made us understand that miR-122-5p-enriched exosomes, which have an important role in the spread of metastases, however, do not derive directly from tumor cells. These discoveries, which tell us how complex the metastatic process is to understand and decipher, will be able to contribute to the development of more precise and targeted therapies against this type of cancer”.
The study was conducted in Padua, in the laboratories of the Città della Speranza Pediatric Research Institute by the group of Dr. Mussolin, in particular by Drs. Carlotta C. Damanti, Lavinia Ferrone and Federica Lovisa, and in synergy with the group of Computational Genomics of the Department of Molecular Medicine led by Prof. Stefania Bortoluzzi and by dr. Henry Gaffo.