Extracellular vesicles: General features and usefulness in diagnosis and therapeutic management of colorectal cancer

Figure 2 Exosome and its cargo content. Small extravesicles (SEVs) are nano-sized membrane vesicles released by a variety of cell types and are thought to play important roles in intercellular communications. SEVs contain many kinds of proteins, either cytosolic or plasma membrane ones. Transporters, receptors, signaling proteins… but also enzymes can be evidenced. Metabolites are also present as well as nucleic acids. Genomic and mitochondrial DNAs, and multiple RNAs (mRNAs, miRNA, lncRNA, circRNA…) can be detected. Through horizontal transfer of these bioactive molecules, SEVS are emerging as local and systemic cell-to-cell mediators of oncogenic information. MHC: Major histocompatibility complex; MVE: Multivesicular endosomes.