The role of extracellular vesicles in cancer biology has emerged as a focus of the study of great importance and has been shown to directly influence tumour development in several cancers including brain tumours, such as gliomas. Gliomas are the most aggressive brain tumours, and in the last time, a considerable effort has been made to understand their biology. Studies focus in the signalling pathways involved in the processes of angiogenesis, viability, drug resistance and immune response evasion, as well as gliomas ability to infiltrate healthy tissue, a phenomenon regulated by the migratory and invasive capacity of the cells within a tumour. In this review, researchers from Austral University of Chile discuss the different types and classifications of extracellular vesicles, their intravesicular content, and their role in the regulation of tumour progression processes in glioma.
Role of EVs in glioma progression
Donor cell of extracellular vesicles (EVs) that is contained in the tumoural niche secretes microvesicles (MVs), exosomes, oncosomes and or apoptotic bodies. These are received by an acceptor cell that may or may not be in the adjacent tumour niche. The reception of these EVs regulates several signalling pathways through the internalisation of several molecules (miRs, proteins, receptors, ligands, DNAs and RNAs) promoting processes such as viability, chemoresistance, immune response, migration, invasion and angiogenesis, all of them essential hallmarks for gliomas progression.