Exosomes as a signature for the progress and metastatic potential of pancreatic cancer

7^th International Conference and Expo on Molecular & Cancer Biomarkers

September 15-16, 2016 Berlin, Germany

Zarin Nuzhat

The University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research, Australia

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Mol Biomark Diagn

Abstract :

Pancreatic cancer is the fourth most common cause of death due to cancer in the world. Pancreatic cancer is known to have a poor prognosis, mostly due to the fact that early stages of the disease are generally asymptomatic. Progress in pancreatic cancer research has been slow, leaving several fundamental questions pertaining to diagnosis and treatment unanswered. Recent studies highlight the putative utility of tissue-specific vesicles (i.e extracellular vesicles) in the diagnosis of disease onset and treatment monitoring in pancreatic cancer. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are membrane limited structures derived from the cell membrane. They contain specific molecules including proteins, mRNA, microRNAs and non-coding RNAs that are secreted to the extracellular space. EVs can be classified according their size and/or origin into microvesicles (~150-1000 nm) and exosomes (~40-120 nm). Microvesicles are released by budding from the plasmatic membrane, whereas exosome release is by fusion of multivesicular bodies with the plasmatic membrane. In this review, we discuss our current knowledge in the diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic cancer and the potential role of EVs with a special emphasis in exosomes. We suggest that as exosomes contain cellular protein and RNA molecules in cell type-specific manner, they may provide extensive information about the signature of the tumour and pancreatic cancer progression. To date, our research will be the first to analyse the potential of exosomes from pancreatic cyst fluid as a biomarker for the early detection of pancreatic cancer.

Biography :

Email: zarin.nuzhat@uq.net.au